Runaway
by RomeeWritesIt
Summary: This story continues where the finale of season 2 ended. Felicity and Oliver are acting stubborn, so they both end up with each a new love interest followed by jealousy. Jealousy that will bring Felicity in real danger. Can Oliver be in time to save her? Olicity/Lauriver/and more.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi! It's been a while since I've written a fanfiction, but after seeing the Arrow finale I couldn't resist. I couldn't keep Olicity out of my mind and so I've been watching several Olicity youtube video's for inspiration and it worked. This story is called 'Runaway' because Felicity is mentally and maybe literally running away from Oliver. Also Oliver tries not to give in with his emotions and feelings towards Felicity. This is an Olicity story with some action and jealousy. Later in this story Felicity will get kidnapped and of course our super hero has to safe her. Hope you like it, this is just the beginning and I'd like for you to review and tell me what you'd like to read further on in this fanfiction.**

* * *

Felicity was woken up by the sound of birds singing. Sunshine peeked through her window, giving a slightly warm feeling on her cheek. Felicity groaned. She did not want to wake up yet. But she had to. As her hand found her glasses, she slowly got up and walked over to her bathroom. She put her glasses on and looked at herself in the mirror. She never really liked looking in the mirror, especially now. Her hair was a mess and she had puffy eyes. She hadn't slept that well, although it had been a week since Slade was 'defeated' and locked up on the 'hellish' Island, as Oliver had always called it. Just hearing Slade's name would already make her shiver. But besides Slade, deep down in her heart she knew that Slade was not the only reason she wasn't able to sleep that well.

_I love you_

These three particular words were haunting her ever since the day Oliver had dragged her into the old Queen mansion. He had insisted that she stayed there until he had defeated Slade. Little did she know he only tried to get Slade's attention so that he would actually kidnap Felicity, the woman Oliver "loved", and she would be able to inject Slade with the Mirakuru cure.

"He shouldn't have said '_I love you'_ though" she whispered to herself.

During that moment in the mansion, Felicity had thought that he had meant every single word he had spoken to her, that he truly cared about her the same as she cared about him. But as soon as she felt the Mirakuru cure pressed in her hand, she realized he was doing the unthinkable and it was all just part of a plan.

Felicity shook her head, trying to get rid of that memory. She hated it. She looked herself in the eyes again and sighed. She turned around and slammed the bathroom door shut behind her.

* * *

"Good morning, Felicity" Oliver said, when he heard her stumble down the stairs. He turned around to see a very tired Felicity.

"You seem.." He paused. He didn't quite know what to say to her, he really didn't want to hurt her feelings.

"Exhausted? Grumpy? Terrible? Yes. I know Oliver." Felicity spoke and she threw herself into her chair. She sighed and closed her eyes.

"That was not what I wanted to say.. but you do look tired. Did you get enough sleep last night?" Oliver asked as he placed his hand on her bare shoulder. She still had her eyes closed. Oliver just examined her. She was wearing a purple mini dress and black high heels. Her legs looked so smooth and it felt good touching her shoulder. Her tiny body made her so vulnerable and only he and Diggle knew what kind of a strong woman was hidden in that tiny body. She may not be the _strongest_, but she sure as hell was the cleverest and the most down to earth person he had ever met.

Suddenly Felicity opened her eyes and caught him staring at her. It gave her an awkward feeling, so she shrugged her shoulders which automatically removed his hand from her.

Oliver frowned. She had never done that before.

"I'm fine, Oliver. I was up all night doing paperwork for QC. I didn't sleep until 4 am." Felicity turned her back to him and she then started doing things on her computer. Oliver loved it when she was busy doing stuff on her computer. Stuff he sometimes didn't understand. That was the main reason she was a part of the team. She was his IT girl and he couldn't have wished for a better one. He smiled.

"Good morning Felicity, Oliver." Diggle spoke as he walked down the stairs, smiling.

Felicity turned around and smiled. "Good morning Diggle."

Oliver looked at Felicity, he was confused.

_How can she get rid of her bad mood so quickly? _

"Oliver?" Diggle said.

Oliver turned around to face Diggle.

"Sorry. Good morning. I was distracted"

"What are we doing today?" Diggle asked as he leaned against a desk. "Since Slade has been gone, it's been quite.. serene in Starling City. We could volunteer though, help the city get back up on its feet. Little bit of charity work?" Diggle joked and laughed.

"I will leave that up to QC. Now that I have my company back, I'm willing to invest in some great things for this city. It's what my mother would have wanted.." Oliver gave a sort of sad smile and Diggle just looked at him.

Felicity bit her lip. Sometimes she would forget that Moira was killed. She never had liked the woman though and Moira had made it quite clear that she had never liked Felicity either. But even though Felicity had disliked the woman, she couldn't stand the pain in Oliver's eyes as soon as he started talking about her. He truly missed her and she knew Oliver felt responsible for his mother's death. Felicity had told him several times that it truly wasn't his fault, but as stubborn as he was, he didn't want to believe her.

"Good thing, Oliver. Moira would be proud." Felicity finally said, showing him respect. He thanked her by giving her a genuine smile.

"Anyway, I don't think there's anything we can do today. As you said Diggle, it's been very serene. You know what? I'll give you a day off and why don't we grab some dinner tonight? Just the three of us?"

"I'm in." Diggle responded.

"Team Arrow?" Felicity said silently. "Just the three of us?"

Even though Felicity loved Sara and Roy and she had accepted them in the team, she sometimes still felt like a third wheel spinning round and round, not knowing what to do in some situations. Felicity knew she couldn't fight well and she knew she wasn't the strongest. She had always been jealous of Sara. Sara had a perfect body, a perfect face and she could fight like the best. Felicity told herself not to be jealous of Roy, cause he used to be injected with the Mirakuru. But even without the Mirakuru rushing through his veins.. he was still a pretty good fighter.

Yes. Felicity needed this. Just a dinner with the original team. She had missed that.

She looked up at Oliver, waiting for a response and so he gave it. He looked her in the eyes and whispered:

_"Team Arrow."_

She lightly smiled back.

* * *

"Felicity! Wait up!"

It was Diggle.

"What's wrong Diggle?" Felicity cocked her head to the right and crossed her arms. She hopped from one foot onto the other, trying to keep herself warm. She actually didn't quite understand why she mostly wore skirts and dresses even when it froze outside. It wasn't that cold today, but still.

"I was about to ask you that same question. You have been very distant toward Oliver lately. What is bothering you?" Diggle wanted to give Felicity his jacket, but she resisted by shaking her head no.

"I just.. " She paused for a second and swallowed before continuing, ".. I just hate the fact that he told me '_I love you'_ when he didn't even mean it. I was just part of his plan.. "

"A plan you came up with…"

Felicity looked down at her heels. "I know.. but still.. I really thought he meant it."

Felicity's voice sounded shaky and Diggle pulled her in for a hug.

_"I know.."_ he whispered. "It was wrong for him to take advantage of you like this, especially because he knows how you feel about him.. but he truly did do the unthinkable."

Diggle looked down at Felicity and she just laughed.

"True that Diggle. I should really stop trying to act clever and come up with clever ideas which aren't even clever ideas in the end.." She let go of Diggle and shoved some hair out of her face.

"Felicity.. you cannot stop trying to act clever.. because you ARE clever. And your idea of doing the unthinkable was beyond clever.. but Oliver was in such an Arrow mode that he didn't re-think before he told you he loved you." He paused. "You know Oliver.. he never wants to hurt your feelings and when he does, he's stubborn enough to not apologize or even give in... You are having dinner with us tonight, aren't you?" Diggle gave Felicity a concerned look.

"Yes, of course. I wouldn't want to miss it."

"Good. Then see what happens tonight. He truly cares about you, Felicity. Let him prove that once again." Diggle smiled and walked away, only to turn around one more time to wave goodbye and say: "See you tonight."

Felicity watched him walk away.

_Diggle was right. Oliver never wants to hurt me, he only wants to protect me. We'll see how dinner goes._

Felicity opened the door of the driver's seat of her car, threw her bag on the backseat, got in herself and drove away.

* * *

**So that wasn't the longest chapter, but I kind of wanted to give an introduction before the story really kicks in. Please review and tell me what you would like to read in this fanfiction!**

**Thank you for reading xx**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter two! Thank you for your support. I was overwhelmed by all the emails notifications I got from . Who would have thought that so many people would follow or favorite my story with just one chapter published? ****Anyway. Enjoy this chapter. And don't forget to review!**

* * *

Oliver liked his new apartment. After he had left the mansion, Felicity had found a new place for him to stay. He first didn't think on staying in this apartment, but after he filled the empty rooms with furniture and decorations, he fell in love with it. It was plain and simple, but his sort of simple. It was also very modern, which he wasn't used to because the mansion used to have a vintage touch.

Oliver walked over to his closet. He opened it and looked at the pictures he had placed against the inside of the closet. He looked at the faces and the smiles that were in the pictures. His mom, Thea and himself in one of them. A little bit lower was a picture of Felicity showing off her very first scar. Next to that picture was a picture of Diggle, Sara and Roy in a restaurant. He also had a picture of Laurel. It was taken two days before Oliver had gotten on the boat trip with his father and Sara. Oliver stood next to Laurel and they both looked at each other, faces covered with big smiles. Oliver smiled, smoothly rubbing his thumb across the picture. His eyes followed all the way up to the picture he loved the most. It was a picture with his best friend.. Tommy. Oliver sighed. He missed Tommy. He missed having a good friend by his side who he could be Oliver Queen with. The picture showed Tommy holding a beer and smiling at his birthday cake. Oliver had taken that picture.

"_I wish you could be here now.."_ he whispered.

Oliver took a step back, looked appreciatively at the pictures and closed the door again. He didn't just want to place the pictures on his kitchen counter or a table because he was simply afraid that someone bad would like to know all the people he loved and go after the still living ones one by one. But Oliver did want to have the pictures somewhere, so he had chosen to pin them on the inside of his closet.

It was 6 PM. Oliver had texted Diggle and Felicity to meet up at 6:30 at this restaurant just out of Starling City. Any other restaurant in Starling City was completely burnt down or under construction.

He grabbed his phone and thought of texting Felicity again. _Maybe she wanted a_ _ride_? _Maybe we really needed to chat and what better way than doing that inside of a speeding car in which she can go nowhere. _

He unlocked his phone and texted her.

_ Should I pick you up at 6:15?_

Felicity answered within seconds. Something that Oliver expected since she was the IT girl and always had her phone around no matter what.

_ No, I'll be fine. Will see you at the restaurant._

Oliver sighed. Even through her reply he could see her annoyed face writing it.

_ I insist. _

Oliver messaged back. This time it took a little longer before Felicity replied. But when she did, Oliver couldn't help but show a grin.  
_  
Fine. 6:15._

* * *

Oliver honked. It was 6:15 and Felicity wasn't outside yet. Should he go inside? Or just simply wait for her. As stubborn as Oliver was he opened his door and was about to walk to the building until he saw a small figure coming out of an elevator. Oliver waved but she didn't seem to have the effort to wave back.

He walked back to his car and opened the door to the passenger's seat. As soon as Felicity exited the building, he looked at her slim figure showing off a beautiful blue dress. Her hair wasn't tied up in a ponytail this time. It was simply a bit curled up. She wore her contact lenses and her makeup was beautifully done.

"Miss Smoak, please, get in." Oliver said on a playful tone.

She just looked up at him and sat down on the passenger seat, closing the door behind her. Oliver clenched his teeth together and looked in the distance. _Well.. this is going to be one great ride.._ He sarcastically thought to himself. He walked over to his own seat, sat down, closed the door and put his seatbelt on.

He just looked at her, waiting for her to say something. Felicity could feel his eyes on her, so she spoke.

"You were right in time." She didn't face him but kept looking through her window.

"Didn't want to let you wait.." he said, "of course."

Oliver started the engine and drove off.

Felicity positioned herself a bit more in the seat and then looked over at Oliver to see him focusing on the road in front of them. She noticed he was clenching his teeth together, because his jawbones were present.

"Why did you pick me up?" Felicity said softly.

"I actually just wanted to know if you'd allow me to pick you up.." Oliver answered.

"Excuse me? What was this again? Some sort of a plan to see how Felicity Smoak would react on Oliver Queen? Well, you didn't turn me on this time. Oh. No. I mean. You didn't fool me this time. What am I even saying? I obviously mean that-"

"Fe-li-ci-ty"

Oliver stopped her from rambling even more. Though he loved it when she did that, he wanted to explain her that it was not a plan.

"I wasn't planning on anything Felicity.. I thought you didn't want to talk to me anymore and g'd knows what I've done to upset you. So please.. talk to me."  
She kept looking at him.

"It's nothing, Oliver. I haven't really slept well the past couple of days because of all the paperwork and-"

"Felicity, you and I both know it's not only the paperwork. What is it? Is it Slade? He can't get to you anymore and besides he's locked-"

"No.." she whispered. "It's not Slade. It's you."

Felicity saw him frowning his eyebrows.

"I thought that was the case, yes. But what did I do wrong then? Is it something I said, because I'll take it back then." He looked her in the eyes. "You know I never want to hurt your feelings, right?"

Felicity started laughing awkwardly and looked down at her hands.

"It's because you _took_ back your words."

Oliver was totally confused now. He had said something that had hurt her, but yet, she didn't want him to take the words back. Oliver took a turn to the right, leaving the main road they'd been driving on. They were almost at the restaurant which left them with five more minutes to talk.

"Felicity, I don't understand."

Felicity took a deep breath and started explaining it. She told him it hurt her feelings that he had said 'I love you' to her, only to find out he never meant it. She did tell him that it was one hell of an unthinkable plan, but she did not expect her to be in this plan. She looked over to Oliver and instantly looked away as his eyes met hers. Her cheeks feeling warm, which normally meant she was blushing.

"I'm sorry.." He said. He placed his hand on her left leg. "I didn't think you would be hurt because of that, but _I did mean those words Felicity_." He had whispered those last words.

She placed her hand on top of his. "I know. But not in the way I would have meant it if I had said them to you. "

This completely silenced Oliver.

They had arrived at the restaurant. Diggle was waiting at the entrance.

"I'm sorry.." Oliver once again said to Felicity.

Oliver turned off the engine and looked at her again. He removed his hand and opened his arms.

Felicity gave in and hugged him as she would always do.

"You're still _my_ girl. _No one_ will change that." He whispered in her ear. This made Felicity light up a bit and she let go of him.

"Let's have dinner. Okay?" Felicity said cheerfully as she got out of the car and walked up to Diggle.

* * *

"Diggle! How's your wife? I mean, ex-wife, I mean.. soon to be wife again. No. Let me put it this way. How's her pregnancy going and how are you doing?" Felicity rambled as she was chewing on her medium cooked steak.

Diggle smiled at her. "Lyla is doing great. We're expecting the baby in 6 months. It still feels weird thinking about parenthood especially after everything that has happened. Not only between me and Lyla but also just in general with my life."

Felicity and Oliver nodded. Totally understanding where this was going.

"I don't want to bring the baby in danger."

"We understand Diggle," Oliver said, "and of course I'll help you protect the baby."

"A little Diggle running around! I'm so excited!" Felicity smiled from ear to ear and Oliver loved seeing her this way again. He had missed that.

"I'm glad we're having dinner with the three of us."

"Me too, Felicity." Diggle replied. "It couldn't have been differently though. Now that Sara is back with the League of Assassins and Roy is on a search for Thea.. which automatically leaves us three."

Oliver nodded with agreement.

"I'm glad to have you two by my side. Without you, we wouldn't be sitting here right now." Oliver looked at Diggle and then to Felicity, seeing their looks of appreciation.

"It's been awhile though, since we've truly had our threesome moment."

Diggle looked over to Felicity and Felicity looked back, realizing what she had said yet again. She sighed.

"Digg, you know what I mean."

"I know, I'm not commenting on anything here." He winked at her and she started laughing.

Felicity's laughter was interrupted by Oliver's phone going off. Oliver looked down at his phone and swallowed.

"Excuse me, I have to take this."

He stood up and walked away, leaving a stunned Felicity and Diggle behind.

* * *

"Who was it you were talking to on the phone? It was a long conversation." Felicity asked as she picked up her whine glass to take a sip.

Oliver stayed put in front of their table.

"It was Laurel, she really needs my help at the moment. You two stay here as long as you want and take a dessert or something. I'm paying."

Oliver grabbed his jacket and put it on.

"See you two tomorrow?" but before Felicity or Diggle could respond, Oliver had already left the building.

"But-" Felicity clenched her teeth. "how about my ride?"

"No worries.. I'll bring you home" Diggle said after looking at a very speechless Felicity.

_Great work Oliver, team Arrow without the Arrow…_ Diggle thought to himself.

* * *

**Sooo.. what's going on with Laurel? Will Felicity get mad at Oliver again? How will team Arrow react as soon as they meet up again the next morning?  
****Thank you for reading! And please review! What would you like to see happening in this story? Just tell me!**

**Until next time ;]**

xx


	3. Chapter 3

**I thought that you guys deserved another chapter. I had nothing to do today so I replied to all whom reviewed and I've taken your ideas into the story. One idea has ended up in this chapter and the other ideas will be put into other chapters. For all the Laurel/Oliver fans.. enjoy ;) For all the Olicity fans.. I'm sorry.. Please don't kill me.  
**

* * *

Oliver knocked and waited. It took Laurel a hell of long time to open her door. He knocked again, louder this time. He wanted to knock again, but Laurel opened the door just before he did. Her eyes were puffy and tears were rolling down her cheek. She had herself wrapped up in a blanket and her hair was in a messy ponytail.

_"Laurel.. what's going on?" _Oliver whispered as he walked into her apartment.

He looked around. It was quite of mess. He hadn't seen it this messy ever since Laurel was an alcoholic. He looked at her, concerned.

"No Ollie.. I'm not drinking again. I promise." Laurel said as soon as she caught him looking at her. She walked over to her couch and sat down. Oliver followed her lead and sat down next to her.

"Then tell me what is going on." He looked her in the eyes, giving her a soft smile. "You called me for a reason.."

"It's Sara.." Laurel abruptly said.

"What about her?" Oliver asked.

Laurel looked at him and sighed before she started talking.

"I miss her so much, Ollie.. I just can't really understand why she went back to the League of Assassins. I mean.. I am proud of her, I am proud of her trying to achieve something.. but I'm really worried that something might happen to her. She is my sister, you know? I'm supposed to look after her. I died inside when I thought she had died on that boat. I started living again when I accepted the fact that she wasn't dead in the first place.. but now that's she's gone again.." Laurel swallowed before ending her sentence, "I just really need my sister back." Laurel started sobbing and tears started rolling down her face, Oliver felt sorry for her and pulled her in for a hug. Laurel rested her head on his shoulder while he rubbed the small of her back.

"Sshh don't worry.. Sara is one hell of a fighter. She is a strong woman and she can take care of herself just fine. She will visit soon.. I promise. The League of Assassins will do her no harm. Trust me. She has been there before. She knows what it's like and you have never seen me sparring with her.. but she has beaten my ass several times." He rested his head on top of Laurel's.

"Ollie.. can't you contact her? Can't you make sure she's alright. Or even better, can you bring me in contact with her? I know she told me she was able to call me.. but I have not heard from her yet." Laurel pushed herself away from Oliver and looked him in the eyes. He could tell that she really needed this, that she really wanted this and as far as he was concerned, she'd do anything to get in touch with Sara. Laurel looked so broken at the moment, the way that tears were welling up in her eyes and the way she clenched her teeth to keep herself in control. He truly did feel sorry for her. Just when she thought that she had her sister back, her sister disappeared again.

"I'll see what I can do.." he replied, "But.. don't expect anything. It will only hurt your feelings more if I'm not able to get in touch with her for you."

Laurel nodded and hugged him.

"Thank _you_, Ollie. I can always rely on you. No matter what."

They stayed in that embrace for a while. Laurel had her ear placed against his chest, so that she could hear his heartbeat. She closed her eyes and relaxed to the sound of it. Oliver was still rubbing his hand on the small of her back and could smell the scent of roses coming off of her hair. Her hair had always smelled like roses, a scent he had loved so much. It seemed like hours went by, but in reality it were just a couple of minutes. Suddenly Laurel pulled back and looked Oliver in the eyes. Their faces were just inches away. Oliver looked down at her lips. Lips he had kissed before. She then softly licked her lips, he knew she was doing it on purpose. He looked her in the eyes again as she leaned in and gave him a quick peck on the lips. Laurel pulled back again and saw a flustered look appear on his face. She smiled and fully went for it, their soft lips touching each other. It was an eager kiss. A kiss especially Laurel had been waiting for. Oliver groaned and softly scooped her up. Laurel wrapped her legs around his waist, not wanting to let go of him. He slowly walked over to Laurel's bedroom. The kiss became harsher and Laurel started unbuttoning his suit. Oliver entered her bedroom and closed the door behind him, never pulling back from the kiss.

* * *

"What time is it?" Felicity asked as she twisted from left to right on her chair.

"8:18 AM. He's 18 minutes late." Diggle said with an annoyed voice. Diggle was in his sportswear, casually leaning against Felicity's desk. As soon as Diggle heard Oliver's footsteps he stood up and straightened his back.

"Where have you been?" Diggle asked. Felicity looked at both men, but couldn't look Oliver in the eyes. She was angry with him. She didn't quite understand why Oliver had left them yesterday night. As far as she was concerned, Laurel wasn't in danger, otherwise Oliver would have brought Diggle and her with him.

"I was.." But Oliver was interrupted by Felicity.

"Weren't you wearing that same outfit yesterday night?" Felicity asked as she stood up and crossed her arms.

Oliver looked down at his suit. _Damn it._

"I can explain.." Oliver started. But Felicity let out a little "Oh." as a reaction that she knew what he had done yesterday evening.. and night. Oliver could see the pain appear in her eyes.

"Why _her_?" Felicity asked, but she asked it so silently that it was hard for Oliver to hear her. "Why her?" A little louder this time. "I mean, last time you two ended up in bed together, she hurt your feelings afterwards. Or is she your rebound now? Now that Sara is gone you just hop onto the next Lance sister?" Felicity shook her head in disappointment. "What is it that the Lance sisters have that-" but Felicity stopped her sentence.

Oliver didn't know how to respond so he stayed quiet and looked away. He made a fist out of his hand, ready to punch something. He was angry with himself. He had let Felicity down, _again_. He knew she was right, yet he did sleep with Laurel and he couldn't take it back. _Was Laurel his rebound?_ Confusion was rising up in his head. He didn't know it anymore.

"I still think you deserve better.." Oliver snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Felicity again. Her eyes were watery and she felt like her heart was broken into a million pieces, again. She was angry with Oliver but also with Laurel. Last time Oliver and Laurel had slept together, Laurel had told him it was a mistake. Felicity couldn't understand why Oliver hadn't thought of that before jumping in bed with her once again. Felicity had to admit she was jealous of Laurel. She had always admired Laurel somehow. For the fact that Laurel was pretty and she was not. For the fact that she could make any guy fall for her and. she. could. not. Felicity could feel her tears welling up and before she could let go of one, she sat down on her chair and turned around.

"Felicity.." her name escaped his mouth. Oliver wanted to walk up to her but he was stopped by Diggle, who hit him hard in his stomach. Oliver grimaced and kneeled. He looked up to Diggle who looked very angrily at him. Diggle kneeled down beside him and whispered in his ear;

"You really screwed up this time, Oliver. Team Arrow is team _Failure_ in her eyes now. Don't mess with her feelings again. I don't even know what happened to you that made you become like this. I thought playboy Oliver Queen had left the building five years ago as you stranded on the island. You're still my mate and I appreciate that you trust me so much.. but we're sort of losing trust in you."

Diggle stood up, walked over to the punching bag and started his workout.

Felicity had heard what happened behind her back. She wiped a tear away with her sleeve and smiled. She was glad that Diggle had stood up for her. She couldn't have wished for a better friend. Especially now that Oliver was letting her down..

Suddenly an alarm went off and Felicity looked up at her computer screen. She opened the tab that gave off the alarm and watched the surveillance camera of a street just two blocks away. Two policemen were chased by someone in a hoodie. She couldn't tell if it was a male or female. She started typing as fast as possible, to get every angle of the street in front of her. The third surveillance camera that she had turned on was focused on the person in the hoodie. Felicity zoomed in and could see a beard, but the rest was covered with his hood. Definitely a man then.

"Guys.." Felicity said as she pointed at her computer screen.

Oliver stood up and rubbed his belly as he walked over to Felicity. Diggle stopped his training and also walked over to Felicity. This time it was Diggle who put his hand on Felicity's shoulder for some extra support toward her. Oliver couldn't help but notice the gesture and so he crossed his arms and kept some distance. Oliver looked at the computer screen as Diggle and Felicity were doing. The man in the hoodie then took out a gun and shot both the policemen. The policemen fell down on the ground. The hoodie stopped and looked up, only to face the surveillance camera that was focused on him. It was too dark to see his face, but it was light enough to see the man in the hood point his gun to the camera and make the surveillance camera go offline. Felicity placed a hand in front of her mouth to prevent a scream.

"Well.. I guess it's time for team _Arrow.._" Oliver said, as he looked Diggle in the eye and walked away to get changed.

* * *

**Well.. what did you think? I did my best. Special thanks to 'fanficaddict92' for coming up with the idea for Diggle to punch Oliver. Hope you liked that little scene.**

**Please review and tell me what you would like to read in this story! Thank you for your support.**

**Bye, until next time ;)**


	4. Chapter 4

**This chapter is slightly longer than the previous ones. Do note that this is STILL an Olicity story. If you do not like Laurel though, then you should still consider reading on. I don't like her either, so she won't end up too happy in this fanfic haha. I would like to thank you all for your reviews. I laughed at those who called Oliver a d*** for example. I wanted him to come across as a d***head, but that image of him will soon change. The real plot is starting off in this chapter! Hope you like it. **

**Thank you.**

* * *

Oliver ran as hard as he possibly could. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop. Examining his surroundings. He had his breath under control as he spoke to Felicity.

"Where is _he_?"

"He is three blocks away from you, on your right." She said as he could hear her fingers tapping the keyboard as fast as possible.

Oliver turned right and stopped on the highest building that was in his area. Suddenly he saw the man in the hoodie walking down the street. The man acted like nothing had happened just moments ago. Oliver followed the man until he turned left into an small alley. Oliver jumped from the rooftop onto one of the fire stairs and then onto the ground. He was approximately 32 feet away from the man in the hoodie.

The man turned around as soon as he heard someone approaching him. But when he turned around, no one was standing behind him. There seemed to be no one in the alley besides him and a cat who just stared at him. Then the man heard footsteps again. He looked up and started searching for a figure on the rooftops, however he could not see anyone. The man sighed and turned around to continue his walk but as soon as he had turned around, he bumped into a person. The man fell on the ground and looked up in shock. He noticed it was the Arrow. The Arrow who was pointing an arrow at him without moving an inch. The man started apologizing.

"I- I am sorry. I didn't mean to- like- run into you, dude. I mean.. You are a dude right?"

Oliver's right hand let go of his arrow and went for the hood. The man flinched and closed his eyes. Oliver removed the hood from his head and looked at him. He noticed this man had no beard.

"What is your name?" Oliver said with an irritated voice.

The man opened his eyes but didn't dare to look the Arrow in the eye.

"Waylon.. Waylon Cane.. Sir.." Waylon was shaking and Oliver could tell he was afraid he was going to die.

"I am_ not_ going to kill you." Oliver saw Waylon relax for a bit. "But I have a question for you."

Waylon swallowed, afraid of what the Arrow might wanted to know of him. Did the Arrow know he slept with prostitutes now and then? Did the Arrow know he had stolen a chocolate bar from the supermarket just recently? Did the Arrow know- but his thoughts were interrupted.

"Where did you get that hoodie?"

Waylon started laughing out of nowhere.

"Wait.. that's what you wanted to know? I thought you were going to ask something scary or someth-"

"_Where _did you get that hoodie?" Oliver said again. Waylon could tell that the Arrow was getting kind of annoyed.

"Uhm.. this dude just gave it to me. He gave this hoodie and 50 bucks. 50 bucks if I wore the hood. So I did."

Oliver groaned making Waylon flinch again.

"Give me the hoodie and get the hell out of here." Oliver demanded and he held his hand up.

Waylon stood up and quickly took off the hoodie and handed it over.

They just stood there in front of each other for a couple of seconds until Oliver told him to go and so Waylon ran off.

* * *

"FELICITY" it was Oliver who had said her name. Felicity turned around and looked at Oliver. He seemed quite angry.

"How come you did not see that the man in the hoodie changed his clothes?!" He threw the hoodie on her desk and looked back at her.

Felicity did not know how to answer that so she grabbed the hoodie, turned around and started doing things on her computer again.

Diggle just watched the two of them and shook his head. He was tired of them fighting. He was tired of the tension that was clearly noticeable in the lair. Diggle felt like they all needed a vacation. A simple getaway to just loosen up a bit. But Oliver didn't seem ready for a vacation yet. Not with the city not being back on its feet again, not with QC not being in full drive mode again and not being ensured that the people he loved were safe.

"Got it!" Felicity said cheerfully. "The hoodie is from a local store just around the corner. In the last couple of days only one hoodie like this has been sold to a man with a credit card."

Felicity smiled. For someone who didn't want to be found, he wasn't making it a hard time for Felicity to find him. Felicity opened another tap and showed the credit card number. She copied and pasted the number in a search bar and waited. After a few seconds a face of a man appeared.

"Grayson Sanchez." Felicity read out loud. "He has bought a house two weeks ago in Castlefall, before that he lived in Vancouver and he's originally from China. He is not married nor does he have any children. His parents past away a few years ago and his sister died in a car accident." Felicity was silent for a second before continuing. "It's unknown what he does for a living.." Felicity scrolled down the page and held her breath as she read where he used to work. "Guys.. he used to work for the Merlyn Global Group."

"What? Let me see?" Oliver said and gently pushed her aside. Oliver scrolled down the page and saw several pictures of this Grayson guy with Tommy, shaking hands. He also saw a picture of Merlyn and Grayson laughing and holding onto each other's shoulders.

"I don't understand.." Diggle began as he saw the pictures. "You don't know him Oliver..?"

But before Oliver could reply, Felicity answered him.

"He worked with Tommy when Oliver was stuck on the Island."

"But the Merlyn Global Group no longer exists. After Tommy's death and after Malcolm Merlyn faked his own death.. the group was over.. Then what is he doing here?" Diggle questioned as he looked at the pictures on the screen again.

"That, I do not know." Felicity replied.

"Then we have to find out.." Oliver said as he stood up. "Felicity, can you figure out where Grayson Sanchez is right now?"

Felicity hacked the surveillance cameras at Grayson's street and house, but there was nothing shown on it.

"He isn't home.." Felicity slowly said as she continued her search.

She had opened Face Recognition and had placed a picture of his face in the program. She saw all the surveillance footages stop by until she had a hit. She looked at the footage but sighed.

"Last time he was seen was at that local store, when he bought the hoodie. After that, no sign of him."

"I don't think the man wants to be found." Diggle said.

Felicity yawned and relaxed for a bit. Oliver noticed her yawning and so he spoke.

"Who wants some coffee?"

He expected grateful faces from both Diggle and Felicity, but got no reaction out of them. Until Diggle sighed.

"I would like a double espresso."

Oliver looked at Diggle with a thankful look and asked the same question directly to Felicity.

"Felicity, would you like a coffee or anything?"

"No, I'm good." She mumbled back.

"Okay." He watched her as she looked at the hoodie in her hands. "I'll be right back."

"I'll come with you." Diggle said. "We'll be right back, Felicity."

"Okay." She mumbled back.

As soon as she heard Diggle and Oliver close the door behind them, Felicity looked up and walked over to the punching back. She positioned herself in front of it, making sure that her foundation was right, as Sara had once learned her. She then hit the punching back and it felt really good. She could feel the blood running through her veins as she released her anger towards the punching back. She started hitting faster and quicker and got really excited because it went that well. She jumped up and down on her toes as she started punching with her right in different angles. When she went for a full knock out on her 'non-existing' opponent the electricity went off. Felicity stopped with punching immediately. She tried to look around, but it was scaringly dark. She blinked a few times, but of course that didn't work. She realized she still had her phone in her pocket, so she took it out and turned on her flash light.

She walked over to her computer and tried to turn it on again, but it wouldn't go on. She then searched for the main electricity source, but couldn't continue searching, because her phone was out of battery.

_Damn it._

She put her phone back in her pocket and started searching for the stairs using only her hearing and hands. She stumbled a bit, but she felt like she was going the right direction. Suddenly, there was a loud 'bang' and a flash of light. The electricity was on again. Felicity turned around to face her computers, but only to see them sort of crashing. She ran to the computers and tried to fix them. She bit her lip as her fingers flew over the keyboard. Then all the screens went black. Felicity backed off and just looked at all the the screens turning on again and acting like nothing had happened just moments ago. Felicity let out a sigh of relief as she sat down and rested her head on her hands.

"I shouldn't freak out that much as soon as the power goess off" Felicity said out oud.

She looked at what the security camera's were filming. Then, out of nowhere, she saw Laurel standing in front of the door of the lair. Felicity could hear the door open. Heels making a clicking sound as Laurel walked into the lair.

"Hi.. Felicity." Laurel greeted.

Felicity turned around and put up a fake smile.

"Hi Laurel. What are you doing here?" Felicity cocked her head to the side.

"I am.. looking for Oliver. Do you know where he is? He wasn't at home so I figured he'd be here. And because I have been here before I believed it'd be okay if I could just- "

"walk in any second?" Felicity ended Laurel's sentence.

"Yes." Laurel confirmed.

"Despite the fact that you've been here before, you're not supposed to just walk in any second you want. That's just not how it goes." Felicity tried to maintain calm. "And besides, Oliver is not here. And no, I don't know where he is either."

That though, was sort of a lie. Felicity did know he was getting coffee, nevertheless, she didn't know where.

"I understand.. how are you though? I see you're still bruised up a bit from last week." Laurel pointed at Felicity's head and Felicity's finger reached for her scar on her brow.

"It's healing and it doesn't hurt.. I had actually forgotten about it." Felicity said as she removed her finger from her little scar.

Then two men were heard. Diggle and Oliver walked down the stairs, Oliver holding two cups of coffee. Oliver noticed Laurel standing in the middle of the lair and he then looked over to Felicity. Laurel turned around and smiled.

"Hi Ollie."

Felicity rolled her eyes and faced her computer screens again.

"Uhm.. Laurel? What are you doing here?" Oliver asked as he placed the two cups on a table.

"I was searching for you. I was hoping you would like to have dinner with me tonight." Her smile never leaving her face.

Oliver noticed that Felicity awkwardly tried to reposition herself in her chair. Diggle looked at Oliver and then walked over to Felicity. Oliver walked over to Laurel, grabbed her by her arm and dragged her to the opposite side of the lair as where Felicity and Diggle were at.

"Did Felicity invite you in?" Oliver asked as his eyes observed her face.

"No.." Laurel replied.

"Laurel.." Oliver sighed. "You know you're not supposed to enter the lair anytime you want. You could have just called me."

"Ollie, I did. But your phone was probably turned off, because I got your voicemail straight away."

Oliver pulled out his phone and looked at it. She was right, it was turned off. He placed his phone back in his pocket and continued the conversation. "I would love to have dinner with you tonight, but we will talk about that later okay? You should go, we're working on something here."

"_Okay_." Laurel replied.

Laurel took a step closer to give Oliver a kiss, but Oliver managed to avoid the kiss and went for a hug.

"Talk to you tonight." He repeated as she walked away.

Oliver then turned his attention toward Diggle.

"Diggle, can I talk to you for a moment."

Diggle turned around and walked over to Oliver.

"Yeah, what's up?" Diggle said as he gave Oliver a concerned looked.

"I need you to go.. I feel like I need to talk to Felicity, because she isn't talking to me." Oliver's eyes observed Felicity as she was just resting her head on her hands.

"Okay, but don't say anything stupid to her." Diggle then said. He patted Oliver on the shoulder and walked away.

Oliver sighed and looked at the woman who was trying to sleep with her head on her hands. She seemed to be daydreaming and looked very peaceful. Though he didn't want to interrupt that, he had to.

"_Felicity.."_ Oliver said as he grabbed another chair and walked over to her, placing the chair behind her. Felicity opened her eyes and turned herself around. One leg casually crossed over the other, hands resting on her lap now.

"Felicity, I don't want to lose you. I don't want to lose my IT girl. Can you please talk to me?"

Felicity clenched teeth. She hadn't seen that one coming.

"I am still _your_ IT girl," she started off as she looked him deeply in the eyes, "but right now, I'm not standing behind your decisions. But if you want to hang out with beautiful Laurel, then go for it. _But did you forget about Sara? I don't understand.._" Oliver hadn't heard the last bit about Sara, so Felicity simply continued. "We're working on a case now. We're partners and friends, I get that."

"Good." Oliver responded. "But can you please start acting like you're standing behind that point. I can't bare it when you're not talking to me- "

"Oliver, I have any right not talking to you though.." Felicity said as she looked down at her knees.

"I know, I get that. I will give you the space you need." He looked at her. She was biting her lip. He loved it when she did that. It was cute and sexy all together. Oliver shrugged that thought out of his mind. He couldn't think about her like that.

Felicity traced her eyes over his body to his lips and cheek and ended at his eyes. He looked so good as always and he was wearing the perfume Felicity always loved to smell.

"I need you Felicity." He spoke. He reached for Felicity's hand but she shook her head.

"No." She said quietly. "If we're going to be partners and friends, it has to be, like, not that."

Oliver couldn't say anything back. He just looked at Felicity and let Felicity look at him until he nodded, lips pursed.

Felicity then stood up.

"It's time for me to go to Queen Consolidated. See you there?" Felicity said. Oliver could hear in her tone of voice that she hadn't forgiven him yet. He really had to give her some space and time.

"You've already had your coffee, so you won't be getting one from me." Felicity said as she pointed at the two cups on the table.

Oliver looked at the cups as Felicity walked away.

* * *

**Thank you for reading this chapter. Hope you liked it!**

**PLEASE review! I like your reactions and I love reading the comments. I also try to put your ideas into my story. So if you have an idea, just simply put it in your reply and I'll see what I can do.**

**Thanks again.**

**xx**


	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you all so much for your support and your reviews.  
****1) Yes, this is an Olicity story, not a Lauriver one. You'll notice later on.  
2) If you have anything to say about my story, any compaints, just review them, but please don't be too harsh.  
3) I'm Dutch. Grammar mistakes and spelling mistakes can be made but I always try my best to write chapters w/o any mistakes.**

**Enjoy xx**

* * *

Felicity was on her way to Queen Consolidated until she remembered she hadn't even had lunch yet. She slowly drove past some small restaurants, all being reconstructed. The damage from the undertaking was still visible in Starling City. As she thought of the undertaking, she could hear the people scream again. She could see people running around, looking for a safe place to stay. She could see strong human beings walking down the streets with masks on, not actually looking like human beings.. She shrugged those thoughts from her mind as she continued on driving.

After the undertaking, Starling City was doing its best to get back on its feet again. But things weren't going as fast as they could possibly go. Some citizens were still scared for the people with the masks, some even moved out of Starling City, having no trust in the city anymore. But anyone who used to be injected by the mirakuru and who used to run around with a mask, was now behind bars. That wasn't really fair though, considering that they didn't even know they were injected with the mirakuru.

Felicity suddenly saw a little bar that was opened. She pulled up in a parking lot and walked over to the bar. She placed her hands above her eyes and against the window to look inside. It was kind of dark, but she could give it a try. She walked over to the door and got inside. As soon as she stepped in, music was heard. Music from the 80's. A smile crossed her face. She walked over to the bar and sat down on a stool. A young waiter walked up to her and smiled.

"Good afternoon, in for a drink already?"

Felicity laughed.

"Oh no!" Felicity looked around and then continued, "I was wondering if I could have anything to eat. This was the only place opened for costumers.."

"Sure, I'll get you the menu. We don't have much to offer, but the things we do have are delicious."

The young man grinned, kneeled down behind the bar to grab a menu, stood up and gave it to Felicity. Felicity reached for it, but another hand grabbed the menu before she could grab it.

"Hey!" She said loudly as she turned around.

The hand was from a man, approximately 28 years old. He was muscular but he also looked kind of clumsy. He was smiling, showing off his very white teeth.

"You should take a double deluxe sandwich, it's great." He said.

His tone of voice was soft and polite.

"Oh." Felicity repositioned herself, "Well, thank you…-"

"Waylon." He said.

"Waylon, but I'd rather look at the men-"

"Kiddo, one double deluxe sandwich for this lovely lady please." Waylon didn't even bother hearing her response as he ordered the sandwich for her.

Felicity was speechless but she didn't quite know if it bothered her that he ordered that sandwich for her or if she liked the attention she got from him. She went with the last part and so she smiled at him adding a simple _'thank you.'_

"Don't thank me... erhm?"

"Felicity."

She offered him a hand and he shook it. He then grabbed another stool and positioned him beside her.

"Well Felicity, what are you doing in such a dark old bar while you could grab lunch in any other restaurant?"

"There aren't that many restaurants left to use here in Starling City. Most of them are under construction." She explained as he kept looking at her.

"I see.." he said softly. "Good thing you picked this one though, it really has nice sandwiches."

Felicity couldn't help but laugh.

"I like it when you laugh." Waylon said out of nowhere.

Felicity stopped laughing and started blushing, pursing her lips together. Waylon noticed that she felt uncomfortable so he continued the conversation.

"What do you do for a living?" he asked.

Felicity looked at him. _If only he knew. _She would love to tell him that she was in team Arrow, fighting side by side with a vigilante, but of course, she couldn't. So she told him what she told everyone.

"I am the executive assistant of Oliver Queen." She paused before asking him the same question. "What do you do for a living?"

"I just work in a store. Nothing special. It's kind of boring, really. I would die to work for Queen Consolidated though. That's some serious business."

Felicity smiled and nodded in understanding.

The waiter then walked over to Felicity and Waylon, handing over the sandwich that Waylon had ordered for Felicity. Felicity took the plate and placed it in front of her. The sandwich did look really good and she was glad that Waylon had ordered it for him.

"Bon appetite." He said in a French accent.

"Don't you want anything to eat?" Felicity said, before taking her first bite.

"No, I'm fine. I already ate something." Waylon watched Felicity as she took a bite and chewed on her sandwich. She looked at him and nodded.

"Delicious, isn't it?"

Felicity nodded again.

Waylon then called for the waiter and handed him the money to pay for the sandwich. Felicity swallowed her bite and looked at him, placing a hand on his arm but pulling it back right after. She blushed again.

"Waylon.. you don't have to pay for this."

Waylon looked at her and gave her a polite smile.

"I insist." He said. Waylon then grabbed for her hand, squeezed it and walked away.

* * *

Felicity watched him walk away until he was totally out of sight. She was still a little stunned by the entire situation. It has been a while since a guy had openly flirted with her. It made her feel good, knowing a guy showed interest in her. She smiled at herself and then realized that Waylon had put something inside of her hand. She looked down and opened her hand. A small note was showed. She opened the note and saw a phone number. Felicity giggled, put the note in her pocket and started eating her sandwich again.

After she had finished her sandwich, she had gone back to her car to seat herself in pulled her phone and the note out of her pocket. She was anxious yet excited. Without thinking any further she dialed the phone number and waited for a response. Her breathing was heavy and she felt really nervous. She stopped breathing when someone picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

It was Waylon.

"Hi, this is Felicity.."

"Ah, Felicity! You found my phone number."

"Couldn't miss it." She said while laughing a bit.

"Why are you calling?" He asked.

Felicity didn't know how to answer that though. She had not expected that question at all. Stupid, because she was the one who called him so she should have had a reason to call.

"How about dinner tonight?" She abruptly said. "I mean, I know we don't know each other, so it might be fun to get to know each other.. in a restaurant. Instead of a bar, because a bar is just so.. well there's nothing wrong with a bar, because you were there too and there is nothing wrong with you so.. Oh."

Laughter was heard on the other side.

"Dinner sounds good.. in a restaurant. How about Korso's? It's just outside of Starling City."

Felicity nodded but then remembered he couldn't see her. She bit her lip and then answered him.

"Sure."

"8 PM. See you there."

"See you there." She replied

And then he hung up the phone. Felicity still had her phone pressed against her ear. She could not believe she had just actually called a guy she didn't even know yet. She wasn't even in the mood to screen him. They were going to a restaurant after all, a public place, what could go wrong?

* * *

It was 8 PM. Felicity walked into the restaurant and waved as soon as she saw Waylon. Waylon got up and seated her onto her chair.

"Thank you.." She said.

"Thank you, for calling me." He said back. "I ordered white wine, I hope that's okay?"

"Yes, white is my favorite." She replied.

That wasn't the truth though, red wine was her all-time favorite, but she didn't want to hurt his feelings.

"Tell me a little more about yourself." Waylon said as he glared at her face.

Felicity swallowed. She never liked talking about herself. Oliver and Diggle didn't even know half of her past. She wasn't really proud of her family. In fact, she was ashamed of them. Felicity agreed to herself to not talk about her past and to make her life sound a bit better than it was so she begun;

"I was always interested in computers.. on a very young age I managed to build them myself. So I went to college and after that I ended up being an IT girl in Queen Consolidated, until I finally got a better job there as his executive assistant.. Mr Queen's assistant." She added, " It pays much better and the work is stressful but fun." She paused. "My mother lives in Vegas and my dad is.. uhm.. on the road." She paused again. that was the best thing she could come up with. It was true though, her dad was on the road, yet she didn't know where because he had abandoned her and her mother. Felicity continued after a few seconds, thinking of what to tell more. Waylon just watched her with an appreciative look. "I'm an animal lover." Felicity then said. She shook her head, that was a stupid thing to say. Though Waylon didn't seem to think it was a stupid thing.

"I'm an animal lover too." Waylon said as he leaned back a little when the wine was put on the table.

"_Thank you"_ Felicity softly said as the waiter placed her glass in front of her.

"Do you have anything to add to your story?" Waylon said but Felicity shook her head.

"No.. my life is not .. that .. exciting." She didn't dare looking at him, because she was afraid that he would notice that she was lying. Nevertheless Waylon started talking about himself.

He used to live and work in Manhattan, but was tired of that area so he moved to Starling City. He had opened his own store which only offered him a little income. His dad was very rich and owned a couple gas stations in Manhattan, so whenever he needed money, he could just go to his dad. His mother had died a few years ago, she had suffered from serious lung cancer, and his sister had moved all the way to London to work in the fashion industry. Waylon ended his story by telling Felicity that he truly was an animal lover and that he owned two dogs.

Time flew by and Felicity and Waylon finally looked at the menu for desserts.

"You know, the craziest thing happened to me this morning."

Felicity looked up and waited for Waylon to continue.

"I was walking in an alley and was approached by the hood-"

"The arrow" Felicity corrected him and clenched her teeth.

"The arrow, of course, have to get used to that." Waylon looked up to the waiter. "Just a cup of coffee please."

"For me too, please." Felicity said as they handed the menus back to the waiter.

"Anyway, the hood, arrow, sorry, approached me and I thought he was going to kill me.. but he just wanted to know where I got my hoodie from." Waylon started laughing. "He must have been jealous of my hoodie, while I should actually be jealous of his."

Felicity put up a fake smile. How could she have been so stupid. _Waylon._ Was she so star struck by his appearance that she couldn't connect the dots. The Waylon that Oliver had stalked this morning, was the same Waylon that sat in front of her at this very moment. Waylon noticed her odd behavior.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

Felicity swallowed and shook her head. "Nothing."

There was an awkward silence for a moment so she asked him a question.

"He didn't hurt you, did he?"

Waylon shook his head no. "The Hood, Arrow I mean, was kind of intimidating, but he didn't hurt me."

As Waylon continued talking about his little meet up with the Arrow, Felicity noticed that a couple walked into the restaurant. And not just some random couple. Oliver and Laurel walked in, Laurel all smiling and laughing and Oliver just following. He looked sort of distracted. The waiter walked up to them and pointed toward a table just three tables away from Felicity and Waylon's. Her eyes followed them until they came real close and Oliver's eyes crossed hers. His eyes widened when he saw her sitting at a table with some other guy. Laurel saw Felicity sitting also, so she smiled and waved. Felicity waved back, which made Waylon stop talking. Waylon turned around and faced Oliver and Laurel. Oliver squeezed his eyes a bit, the guy Felicity was with seemed familiar to him. His eyes then widened again when he noticed it was the guy from this morning. What was Felicity doing with him?

Felicity looked at Waylon.

"Waylon, this is Laurel.." Felicity paused for a second, "a friend of mine." Waylon stood up and shook Laurel's hand.

"And that is.. Oliver Queen.. my.. boss." It sounded weird saying that. Calling Oliver her 'boss'. Waylon also shook Oliver's hand, but he flinched a bit when he noticed what a firm handshake Oliver had.

"Well.. enjoy the rest of the night." Laurel said as she looked down at Felicity.

"Won't be a problem.." Felicity said back.

Oliver just looked at Felicity. He was speechless. Did she even know the guy? He didn't want to ruin her night though and Laurel was pulling his arm.

Oliver just faked his smile at the two as Laurel directed him toward their table.

Waylon sat down again.

"Well, that was slightly awkward." He said.

Felicity laughed a bit.

"Slightly.."

* * *

"Oliver? What is wrong?" Laurel asked as she tried to make him look at her. Laurel had noticed that he was quite distant toward her ever since this morning.

Oliver was just staring at this Waylon guy that was sitting in front of Felicity. Laughing with her, looking at her like she was a piece of meat. He wanted to walk up to them again and throw him out of the restaurant. But that would only make Felicity mad. He had learned from that. Last time he tried to chase a guy away, it was Barry, and that didn't turn out well either.

"Oliver!" Laurel said a little louder.

Oliver closed his eyes and opened them to look Laurel in the eyes. He could see she was getting annoyed and somehow he didn't care about that. He cared about Felicity's safety at the moment. Felicity's safety which was put at risk because she was on a date with an unknown guy at the moment.

"Do you want to go home?" Laurel asked.

No, he didn't want to go home, because he didn't want to leave Felicity out of sight. He wanted to make sure she was safe.

Laurel grabbed Oliver's hand and squeezed it. Oliver looked down at their hands and noticed how odd this felt for him. It didn't feel right.

* * *

"I had a nice time." Felicity said as she looked Waylon in the eyes. She smiled. She really did have a nice time. She really needed to go on dates more often.

"Let's go." Waylon said and they stood up.

Felicity actually wanted to shake his hand, but he went for a hug. She answered his hug. It was a strong and firm hug and she loved it.

"I will call you." Waylon said as they slowly made their way to their cars.

Felicity smiled.

They both got in their own car and Felicity let him drive away before she drove off herself.

* * *

Oliver had watched them walk out of the restaurant and had also watched them get into separate cars, but he still wanted to make sure Felicity got home safe. Laurel was telling him a story but Oliver was hardly listening. Nevertheless, Oliver sighed and pointed his attention toward Laurel again. Nodding now and then to show her he was following her story.

* * *

**Say hi to Waylon. Oops. How do you feel about him? Do you trust him or nah?  
****Please review!**

**xx**


	6. Chapter 6

**It's been a while, I'm sorry, I was very busy with school and everything. I have a new chapter though and I am very excited about this one. This chapter is the beginning of a huge change.. sooo.. enjoy.**

**I read every single review of yours btw and any ideas for this fanfiction are more than welcome! I even put some of your ideas in the fanfic. Your opinions are also more than welcome.**

**Enjoy reading and thank you for all of your support!  
**

**Arrow owns everything and yes this is an Olicity story.**

* * *

Felicity sat in her car. It took her a long moment of sitting behind the wheel, watching people milling on the pavements and the cars circling, to realize that she truly had to get into the building. She had to go to work. Felicity sighed and breathed out before exiting her car. She walked over to the building and looked up to see the morning sunlight bleach the building to pale. She walked through the grand hall approaching the elevators. A –_ding_- was heard and the doors opened. Felicity fastened her walk and was in time in the elevator before the doors could close and leave her outside. Felicity pressed the button to her floor and then looked over to her right. She was standing next to a beautiful, freckled young woman. Felicity bit her lip. She wondered if someone ever thought that she was beautiful, because that would mean a lot to her and it would give her self-esteem a bit more of a boost. She still wondered what Waylon had seen in her. He was a nice, good looking guy and she liked the way he flattered and spoiled her, but she had not felt the click yet. She missed a sort of connection with him.. a connection she _did_ have with Oliver.

Another –_Ding_- was heard. Felicity had reached her floor. The freckled girl looked at her and Felicity realized she had been staring at the young woman the entire time. Felicity awkwardly smiled at her and exited the elevator. She turned left and saw that her office door was open, which meant that Oliver was in the building too. She entered her office and placed her bag next to her table. She looked over to Oliver's office but he wasn't sitting behind is desk. Felicity sat down on her chair and looked at the paperwork that was piled up on her desk. Sighing, she grabbed the pile and looked it through. She noticed Oliver had to attend a lot of events in the upcoming weeks. She grabbed a pencil and started chewing on it, her eyebrows frowning as she read the first paper with information of the first event.

"What are you reading?"

It was Oliver. Felicity looked up with a frosty expression and saw him standing in the door way with two cups of coffee.

"You have some upcoming events that you need to attend. It should be fun, but you have a lot of speeches to prepare."

Oliver just groaned a bit and then placed one of the cups on Felicity's desk. Felicity gave him a weak smile and wandered off to her paperwork again.

"How was your.. evening?" Oliver asked. "He seemed like a nice guy."

"He _is_ a nice guy." Felicity replied as she looked back up to him. "And it was a lot of fun. I mean, it was great talking to someone with a normal life. Someone who is not working with a vigilante or some kind.."

"Would you like a life without a vigilante?" From Oliver's tone of voice, he seemed quite hurt and that was something Felicity didn't want. She hated it when he felt hurt. Oliver tried to hide his feelings all the time, he didn't want people to know that he could be vulnerable. But Felicity always noticed when he was hurt.

"No.. no.. of course not. I love working with you. It makes my life more exciting." Felicity said as she silently straightened up her pile of paperwork.

That was true. It did make her life more exciting. Though she was scared most of the times, it still felt great fighting against the enemies. Well, of course it was normally Oliver who fought the enemies and Felicity was his partner, the one he could rely on.

"Have you checked Waylon anyhow?" Oliver asked again, trying to change the subject back to Waylon.

"No.. I didn't feel the need to, despite, we were in a public place.. nothing could have happened."

"So you didn't know Waylon before yesterday night?"

Felicity's cheeks colored.

"Well.. I met him in a bar yesterday.. afternoon." She said in response. "And before that you had a little interaction with him."

Oliver clenched his teeth.

"Why are you doing this, Felicity? You hardly know the guy and you just go on a date with him?"

"Waylon is a good gu-"

"Felicity. You barely _know_ the guy. He could have hurt you. I wouldn't have forgiven myself if something had happened to you."

"But he didn't hurt me, Oliver. See? Nothing is wrong with me. I finally had a great night with a great guy who did not leave me having a dessert alone." Felicity snapped back and held onto her breath as she realized what she had said.

Oliver looked down. He knew it had been wrong from him to leave Diggle and Felicity behind at the restaurant that night, but he had thought that she was over it. After all he thought that Laurel truly needed his help.

"Don't take this out on me. I am just trying to protect you." Oliver spoke as he looked her in the eyes again.

Felicity stood up and walked over to Oliver but she kept her distance from him. She crossed her arms and just looked at him.

"Stop protecting me Oliver." She slowly started, "There is no need in protecting me anymore. Slade is GONE. Behind bars, buried deep down in the ground on a hellish island. Yes, I still have nightmares with him in it, but they are just nightmares and you can't protect me from them either? Can you? Waylon is truly a sweet guy and we are going on a lunch date this afternoon and I don't care what your opinion is on that because I'm still going."

"We have a meeting this afternoon, in the lair. I thought we were going on a search for Grayson Sanchez." Oliver said as Felicity had finished her little outburst.

"I can make it in time for the meeting. Am I ever late?"

Oliver did not answer that.

"What is it you like about this guy anyway?"

"Oliver, I am really not in the mood to tell you that right now. You don't have to like him, for me to like him."

Oliver was getting angry. Why was Felicity acting like such a fool. He didn't understand. He thought that she was the bright and smart young woman who would see such stupid things in this situation. But in fact, Felicity just seemed utterly stunned by Waylon and star struck. Oliver also felt like he was pushed aside by her. He hadn't liked the way Diggle had stood up for Felicity, because it seemed like they had a better bond than he and Felicity had. And now this Waylon guy came in between Felicity and him.. It was something that Oliver could not accept.

"Why are you pushing me aside like this?" Oliver asked.

"Aside? You aside?" Felicity quizzically looked at him. "Don't you see it Oliver? _You_ are the one who's pushing _me_ aside and not the other way around. I found it a hard time with Sara around, but now I really miss her because I cannot stand Laurel and you together." Felicity stopped talking and clenched her teeth.

Oliver looked hurt again, but this time, Felicity did not care.

"Diggle has been here for me, he has been the friend I was reaching for the past couple of days. You were nowhere to be found when I needed you. You were being cozy with Laurel and as much as I like seeing you happy.." she paused. "I also feel like I have tried to tell you this multiple times and it just seems like you don't understand what's going on around you anymore. You are so focused on Starling City and Laurel and catching the bad guys that you truly forget about Diggle or me or Thea."

Oliver looked at Felicity. He wanted to hold her and give her the attention she needed. He wanted to tell her that she meant so much to him. He wanted to tell her that he had broken up with Laurel right after dinner yesterday night, because he had realized that every time his girl, _Felicity_, walked into the room, every time she looked him in the eyes, every time she smiled and every time she rambled things his heart fluttered. But he couldn't tell her that. He couldn't put her at risk and he didn't want to destroy the very strong relationship they had already and she seemed truly happy with this new love interest. Maybe he was just too jealous of her finding new luck in her life.

Oliver knew of himself that he was a stubborn person. Felicity had shown her feelings toward him several times, yet he had not given in. He felt stupid for letting her down. He felt stupid for looking like the playboy Oliver he was before the island. He felt stupid for the pain he had given Felicity.

Oliver remembered when he first admitted to himself that he had fallen in love with this beautiful, smart and funny blonde. It was the appearance of Barry that had made him so jealous at that moment. He couldn't stand seeing him and Felicity together. That was the first time he truly was jealous. That he wanted to walk up to Felicity and just kiss her. But he didn't do it then and he wouldn't do it now.

"I'm not forgetting about you.. nor about Diggle, nor about Thea.. I just have so many things on my mind."

"And these things are more important than the people you truly care about?" Felicity's voice sounded shaky.

She didn't understand it anymore. Oliver had made it quite clear he didn't want to be in a relationship with her, but yet he didn't bother seeing her happy with another guy. She was so frustrated and so emotional that she had to dig her nails into her own skin.

The two just looked at each other. Oliver couldn't answer Felicity's question, afraid that he might say the wrong things again. Minutes seemed to fly by and Felicity couldn't handle it anymore. She shook her head and was about to say something more, but she closed her mouth again. She was done with this, tired of it. She pursed her lips together, shook her head one more time and walked away.

* * *

**Thank you so much for reading this, I liked writing this chapter, though it kind of hurt my feelings haha.**

***Spoiler Alert* Some more action will come later and something will happen with Felicity.. oops.**

**PLEASE review! It's really appreciated.**

**Thanks again for your support!**

**xx**


	7. Chapter 7

**First I would like to thank you all so much for your support and love. Especially Lililovingreading for the support and reviews. Your reviews make me happy and excited to write new chapters, so THANK YOU. Thank you all, you all inspire me to write new chapters.**

**So yes another chapter! I had a hard time writing this, because I wanted to make sure this chapter gives you mixed up feelings about the entire situation. Just read it and I hope you'll understand! THANK YOU AGAIN.**

* * *

"Felicity, what a surprise. I thought we had a date a little bit later today." Waylon said as he pulled her into a hug.

"I know, I guess I couldn't wait." Felicity replied as she answered the hug and let go again.

Waylon held onto her shoulders and looked at Felicity. He frowned a bit and Felicity smiled weakly at him.

"What is wrong? You seem upset. Did something happen at work?"

Felicity bit her lip and looked at him.

"I got into a fight with Oli- my boss.." Felicity said as she started walking, followed by Waylon.

Waylon had asked her to meet up at the park and Felicity was glad about that. He wanted to take a walk and she had no problem with it, not after the argument with Oliver. She really had to blow of some steam. She looked around and watched children run over a field, probably playing hide and seek, because one other child stood against a tree, counting out loud.

"What was the fight about?" Waylon said after a moment, trying to walk in the same rhythm as she was walking.

Felicity did not know how to answer that question. She felt like she couldn't tell Waylon that the fight was particularly about him.

"It was nothing bad." She just simply said.

"I don't believe you, Felicity. You're acting quite distant for _'nothing bad'_"

A tiny voice in Felicity's head said she should have kept her mouth shut about the fight between her and Oliver. She doubted that it would have helped, though, because she was acting quite distant and sooner or later, Waylon would have gotten it out of her.

"My boss just tends to involve himself too much into my personal life and it is quite annoying. We were supposed to have a meeting this afternoon, but I told him I had another appointment, with you. He didn't quite take that well.. Although I could have gotten to the meeting right after our _date, _but now I really don't feel like going to the meeting at all."

Waylon grabbed her hand and Felicity looked at the gesture, but she didn't pull back. They just held hands as they continued their walk.

"I'm sorry about that. He shouldn't interfere in your personal life though. He is your boss and as far as I'm concerned.. your business life and personal life should be separated."

_It's too late for that though_

Felicity thought to herself. If only she could still separate her personal life from her business life, but somehow her business life was now her personal life.

As they walked, Felicity tried to take in their surroundings, get a better sense of the park, but she was too damned distracted. Oliver was stuck in her thoughts and she couldn't get him out of it.

Suddenly Waylon let go of her hand and walked ahead of her to a bench. He sat down.

"Come sit with me. This bench has a nice view on the park. I like seeing those kids play," Waylon said as he pointed toward the kids Felicity had seen earlier, "makes me miss my youth."

Felicity smiled and sat down next to him.

Felicity looked at the other people who were in the park also. She saw a middle-aged woman walking her dog, a group of women running around, acting sporty and a pregnant teenage girl sitting on another bench, as if hoping someone would drive by and whisk her off to a better life.

Felicity sometimes wondered how this all was possible. How every single person on earth had his or her own thoughts, way of doing, her or his own life. But she thought it was beautiful. Seven billion people in the world and all so unique.

Waylon and Felicity sat there in silence for a while, but this time, it was far from an awkward silence. It felt great, comfortable, and Felicity started to relax more.

* * *

"Diggle, have you heard from Felicity yet?"

Diggle shook his head no. Oliver had been asking him this question a couple of times the past thirty minutes and it started to annoy him.

"I don't think she is coming Oliver." There was a silence for a bit. "You two got into a fight. She is probably blowing off some steam somewhere."

"Diggle. It's been four hours since she burst out of the office, she has had enough time to _blow of steam._ She may be angry with me, but she still has a responsibility to this team. Besides, I'm worried. _She_ is never late."

"She is probably having lunch somewhere with Waylon, all is fine."

"That's the thing Diggle," Oliver said as his eyes darkened. "I don't trust this guy. She barely even knows him."

"Felicity is a smart woman. She knows what she is doing." Diggle said to calm Oliver down. "Besides, she probably did some research on him." Diggle smiled, trying to ease the tension.

Diggle's words didn't help Oliver to calm down.

"Felicity admitted to me that she hadn't done research on him, Digg." Oliver looked concerned.

Diggle swallowed. He hadn't expected that. Felicity always made sure she had every single information on something or someone before she fully trusted it or the person. Diggle pulled out his phone and dialed Felicity's number. He waited for a couple of seconds, but only to get her voicemail.

_This is Felicity Smoak, I'm probably not hanging around with my electronics because I'm not answering my phone either *_an awkward giggle* _which is obvious.. because you're hearing my voicemail now.. _*silence*_ uhmm.. I'll call you back._ _–beep-_

"Felicity, it's Diggle. Where are you? You're late for the meeting and I'm alone with a very annoyed Oliver. We are worried." Then Diggle hung up the phone. Oliver stared at him. He let out a small groan and walked over to his coat.

"We are going to search for her, _now_."

Diggle nodded and followed Oliver.

* * *

As Oliver was driving, Diggle was busy with searching for Waylon's address on his phone, after a couple of minutes he finally found it.

"I wish Felicity was here to do this sort of work." Diggle murmured.

"What is the address?"

"Orchid Bay 22" Diggle replied as he read it out loud from his phone. "We are near. Fifth street on your right."

Oliver started driving faster. Diggle pressed against the seat.

"What exactly are you going to do when we arrive there, Oliver?" Diggle asked as he looked to his young friend who was so focused on the road and getting to his destination. "I mean, you can't just burst in to find them cozy on a couch." Diggle noticed that that thought made Oliver flinch. "Maybe she isn't even with him anymore. We should have gotten to her house first."

"There's no way back now, Diggle." Oliver said on a sharp tone.

Oliver turned right and started looking for number 22.

"Oliver, there." Diggle pointed to a big and fancy house. It looked quite new and modern. The house had three levels and a pointy roof. It was too fancy for a single man.

"This is why I don't trust the guy." Oliver said. "How can a single man live in such a big house and besides, he gratefully took the 50 bucks and the hoodie from Grayson Sanchez yesterday morning.. but why need 50 bucks when you're obviously wealthy?"

Oliver had a point there. It was odd that Waylon would take an old and dirty hoodie and 50 bucks from an unknown guy, especially when you had enough money to buy as much hoodies as you would like.

Oliver got out of the car and made his way to the house, followed by Diggle who had to walk fast to catch up.

"Oliver, just think before you speak." Diggle warned him for the last time before Oliver rang the doorbell.

No sound was heard so Oliver rang the bell again.

Suddenly the door opened. It was Waylon.

"Mr Queen.. what a privilege-"

"Where is miss Smoak?" Oliver said as he squeezed his eyes a bit.

"I don't know-"

Oliver interrupted him again.

"Didn't you have an appointment with her this afternoon? She didn't show up at the meeting. So we figured she was still with you."

"How did you know where I lived though. It's not like I ever told you."

Oliver swallowed and was about to punch him in the face for not answering his question, but Diggle pushed him aside.

"Could you just tell us where miss Smoak is, so we can go find her and we no longer have to bother you?" Diggle said as he held onto Oliver's arm without Waylon noticing.

"Well.. we went for a nice walk in the park and sat on a bench for an hour. After that we had lunch in a small and cozy restaurant and that's where I have last seen her. I didn't have to bring her home or anything, because she had her own car to drive." Waylon answered as he frowned and crossed his arms. "But no, she is not here." He directly spoke his last sentence to Oliver. Oliver bit his lip, trying to control his anger toward this disgusting man.

"Thank you for your help, if you hear anything from her, could you tell her we are searching for her?" Diggle asked.

"Of course, I bet she will call me soon." Waylon directed his words to Oliver again.

Oliver just gave him a fake smile, he didn't want this man to win from him.

"Have a nice day." Diggle said as he and Oliver walked away slowly.

"You two gentleman too!" Waylon shouted as he watched them walk away, he grinned before closing the door.

* * *

As soon as they got back in the car, Oliver started his little rant.

"I told you this man is not trustworthy. Just look at him." Oliver glanced at the house. He could see Waylon peeking through his window.

Suddenly both Oliver and Diggle's phone went off. They pulled their own phone out of their pockets and checked the message that had arrived. It was from Felicity.

_I'm not feeling well.  
Will be staying home today..  
and tomorrow too I think.  
Felicity._

Oliver frowned at the message. He was utterly astonished by this all. Diggle just looked up from his phone and observed Oliver.

"See.. nothing is wrong with her, despite that she is not feeling well." Diggle softly said.

Oliver said nothing back as he started the engine and slowly drove off. He didn't understand why Felicity would send them a text message so late. He didn't understand how she could not have known how worried they could become if she didn't let anything know from herself. Although he was glad to know she was safe at home, he still felt weird about it. And not only about the Felicity situation, but also still about Waylon. Especially after seeing how he lived. He couldn't connect the dots. He had pictured Waylon as a non-wealthy, disgusting guy. But now he pictured him as a wealthy disgusting guy. He really had to keep an eye on him, because Waylon truly did make it all feel like he was up to no good.

* * *

**Well.. what do you think of Waylon now? :)  
I hope this chapter makes you as confused as it makes me!  
Thank you for reading and PLEASE REVIEW, it's much appreciated.**


	8. Chapter 8

**(Oops. I deleted the chapter by accident! But it's here again!)**

**Hi! I promised to post this chapter on monday, but my internet completely let me down, so I wasn't able to post it yesterday. However, it's here now. It's probably the shortest chapter I have ever written, but I felt like posting it anyway, without adding something more, because this chapter is slightly different from any other chapter. I really wanted this scene to stand out and that's why it's posted. Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy reading this.**

**Thanks again for all of your reviews, even the negative ones, because I learn from those. But please don't be too harsh on me, I'm trying my best to make a good fanfiction.**

**Oh, before you start reading this chapter, do realize that this scene happened just before Oliver and Diggle started searching for Felicity in the previous chapter ;)**

* * *

After the walk through the park with Waylon and the lunch at Korso's, which was now her favorite restaurant to go to thanks to Waylon, she had gratefully thanked him for his support and kindness and she had even given him a quick peck on the cheek before he left and said his goodbyes. She was glad to have someone by her side who looked at her like a normal human being. She knew things weren't going to work out with Oliver so why shouldn't she give Waylon a chance? Although she knew, deep down in her heart, that a strong romantic relationship with the guy wasn't going to happen, it felt nice having a man by her side who cared about her like she couldn't image.

It was odd thinking that they didn't even know each other for that long. Waylon seemed so genuine and so special. She loved how he talked about his life and she had promised to visit him at his store someday. She had even invited him to her place, but he had kindly said no, explaining that he wanted to know her more before they would enter each other's house. She understood that and had told him that if he ever wanted to pay a visit, he was more than welcome.

Now Felicity was casually walking toward her house. She had a long way to go, but she loved walking and focusing on her surroundings. Her heels tapped on the pavements and her pony tail softly swung from left to right. She held her chin up a bit, trying to get every bit of sunshine touch her pale skin. Felicity passed an old lady sitting on a bench, she greeted the lady, knowing that it was the owner of the grocery store around the corner. The old lady just smiled at her, showing off her dentures. Felicity smiled back and continued her walk. She had always liked the old lady. The lady always sat on that bench every afternoon when she thought her employees could handle the store on their own. She used to have a dog too who accompanied her all the time, but it died a couple of months ago. Yet the smile on that lady's face never disappeared.

The lady had told Felicity, a couple days after her dog had died, that she was glad that she had given such a remarkable creature an amazing life. When Felicity had asked the woman how she felt now, without her dog, the woman said the words she always said when ending a conversation.

_The most important thing is to enjoy your life, to be happy, it's all that matters._

Felicity liked that quote. After meeting the old lady for the first time and hearing that quote for the first time, she had kept it in her memories. Anytime something bad happened or Felicity felt down, she couldn't help but think of the old lady sitting on a bench, repeating the same sentence every now and then. Felicity had of course, searched for the quote on the internet, only to find out the quote belonged to the one and only Audrey Hepburn.

Felicity smiled to herself. She admired how life lessons were passed on from generation onto generation, very inspiring.

Felicity had walked a long way in the meantime. She was walking down her own street as she approached her building that she called her home. Nonetheless did she only own an apartment in the building but she liked how it was built and how it gave off such energy and excitement to get inside.

Felicity stopped at the building and jammed her key into the lock. When it didn't open the first time, she tried again and the door swung open. She walked over to the elevator, but decided to take the stairs instead and so she did. She only had three stairs to walk but it felt like a real accomplishment when she reached her floor. A little out of breath, because of the extra speed she had used, did she finally reach her floor. She walked over to her door, unlocked it and smoothly swung it open. She kicked off her heels and hung her coat on a chair nearby. She then walked over to the kitchen and filled a kettle with water to boil. She turned on the radio and was glad to hear the arctic monkeys.

_Now it's three in the morning, _

_And I'm trying to change your mind.._

Felicity hummed along, enjoying the music that was played and the silence that was within her. When her tea was ready, she poured it into her mug, but left it on the kitchen counter to release some more warmth as it was way too hot to drink yet. Felicity rested her head on her hands and she closed her eyes. She was still humming along, absorbing every word that was sung.

_Why'd you only call me when you're highhh_

All of a sudden she heard footsteps. Felicity opened her eyes in shock and looked around. Nevertheless there was no one to be seen. Her heart was pounding faster than normal and she caught herself on breathing too fast too. She bit her lip and calmed herself down.

'_Must have been the radio somehow.'_ Felicity thought to herself.

Then the song ended. Felicity just gazed at the radio until the she grabbed her mug and went for a sip. The warm tea rushed down her throat and she felt the warmth within her body. Those were little things she always noticed.

After finishing her tea she walked over to the couch and sat down. She grabbed a remote that was lying near her and turned on the tiny TV that was placed on a little table. She tried looking at the television screen, but things became blurry. She squeezed her eyes shut for a couple of seconds and opened them again, but all was black now. She screamed and tried to stand up, but without her sight, she couldn't narrow down where she was so she lost her balance. She tried reaching for the couch again, but it seemed nowhere near her anymore. She covered her eyes with her hands as she started crawling, figuring out where in her apartment she was at the moment. Felicity started sobbing, she did not understand what was happening, not only did she lose her sight, her entire body was shaking and she couldn't breathe normally. Her body couldn't handle the movements anymore. She stopped crawling and lied down on the ground as flat as possible. She started screaming for help. Her phone was still in her bag, so she couldn't reach anyone. Not Diggle, not Oliver and not even detective Lance. Suddenly she did not hear her screams anymore. No more sound came out of her mouth. She tried catching enough air to fill her lungs with, but it didn't work. Her head started pounding and she couldn't feel her body working anymore.

_The most important thing is to enjoy your life, to be happy, it's all that matters_.

Felicity thought of the quote of the old lady again. She wondered if she had reached that most important thing, yes, she was happy and she enjoyed her life, however she did believe that she hadn't had the chance to get the best out of her life yet. She realized she wasn't ready to die yet. Though she did not know if she was dying and what it was like dying, but something in her head warned her that maybe this was it. But it couldn't be. She was too young and this was too strange.

As her body slowly, completely failed on her, her thoughts rambled on. Felicity tried catching for air one more time, but she failed entirely. Her eyes slowly closed as she tried screaming for Oliver's name.

No sound came out and no movement was made.

_To be happy.._

Were the last words going through her thoughts.

* * *

**Well.. that was it. What did you think? Please review, reviews are appreciated. **

**Thanks for your support and sticking with me :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**My laptop completely failed on my while I was writing chapter nine for this fanfiction. It totally crashed and it erased the chapter with it. I could cry. I really wanted to update my fanfiction yesterday, especially after the very kind and amazing reviews I had gotten (special thanks to YouWillNeverKnowMyNameForSure for the best review ever haha), but everything failed on me. Except for the library. Thank g'd. Wrote the chapter there in silence so I could finally update it now!**

**Enjoy and don't forget to review ;)**

* * *

"I thought that after the undertaking you'd be getting yourself to a nice island to get some rest?"

Detective Lance looked at the Arrow who was standing right in front of him. The Arrow was a couple of feet away, standing in the shadow of a large building, so Lance wasn't able to see his face. Obviously. Lance had to admit to himself that he had tried to look underneath the Arrow's hood several times, but he never found out who the man was, hiding underneath it. Because not only was the Arrow good in hiding his identity in the real world, while being the Arrow he had a hood and a mask to cover up his face with. In the very beginning of getting to know the Arrow, Lance had dearly wanted to know who it was, but after seeing that the Arrow was only up to good, Lance didn't want to know it anymore. He didn't want to know who the man was underneath the hood, who the man was sacrificing his own life to help the people in Starling City. Lance had built up so much respect for the Arrow, even though he hated his guts in the very beginning.

"I will get my rest as soon as Starling City is back on its feet. I'm going to help built up this city again."

"Why would you want to do that? There are plenty of people out here who are already working hard to build up this city again, you have done enough. Take your rest."

"Detective."

Detective Lance stopped talking and sighed. He could never win a fight against the Arrow, not even an argument. The Arrow always knew what he wanted and right now there was something else he wanted again.

"Two policemen of your department were murdered two days ago. Did you do any investigation on that yet?"

Detective Lance nodded his head.

"Yes we did, we want to kill the son of a bitch who took down our partners. Two families, each, lost someone. We couldn't ignore this case."

"What did you find until now?"

"We checked the surveillance cameras on the street where they were killed and we noticed that there was a man in a hoodie who killed them. A man with a beard. But we weren't able to figure out who exactly the man is, because the footage is too dark to show us-"

Detective Lance was interrupted.

"It's Grayson Sanchez."

Detective Lance swallowed and responded;

"Felicity huh?"

The Arrow nodded in agreement. Lance had a lot of respect for Felicity too. She was always able to find out anything. He did not know how Felicity found out about Sanchez, but her work always paid off, so he didn't even bother to know.

The Arrow spoke: "Felicity found out that the hoodie that the man was wearing was bought in a local store by a credit card. The credit card belongs to Grayson Sanchez. Sanchez used to work in the Merlyn Global Group. We tried narrowing him down, but last time he was seen was the day he bought the hoodie."

"And you need my help for what?" Detective Lance asked.

"I need you and your men to help us search for Sanchez. We can't find him and we can use any help possible."

"Grayson Sanchez, got it. We will do our best to get him as soon as possible." Lance said.

"Detective, when you get him.. I need to speak to him."

Detective Lance looked at the Arrow. How could he say no to that.

"We will hand him over to you when we find him.. as long as we get him back."

The Arrow nodded in appreciation along with agreement and walked away.

Detective Lance did not know what the Arrow wanted with Grayson Sanchez exactly, but he didn't care. As long as he got Sanchez in the end, all would be fine.

* * *

Oliver was driving in his car on his way to his new apartment. It was still new to him driving into another direction than toward the mansion. After Diggle and Oliver had left Waylon's place, they went back to the lair and decided to work further on the case about the two police men. Oliver then had a meeting with detective Lance, giving him Grayson Sanchez's name. Now all Oliver had to do was wait until Lance and his team would find Sanchez. Diggle had returned home to his soon-to-be-wife-again, because she wasn't feeling well and she needed all the help with the pregnancy. Oliver had told Diggle before that it was okay if he took more time off in the Arrow team to be with Lyla. Diggle had gratefully thanked him and also offered any help if Oliver truly needed him. Oliver had not responded to that but he was glad that he could always count on Diggle, no matter what.

Oliver arrived at his apartment and parked his car in a well-secured parking lot. He got out of his car and walked over to the building. He was about to unlock the main door until he noticed that the door was open. Oliver frowned, knowing that this door would always be locked, because it was a well secured building. He shoved his key back in his pocket and slowly walked to the stairs. He wasn't going to take the elevator, because if something was going to happen, he had to be able to flee any direction he wanted to. He took the stairs step by step, making as little sound as possible. When he arrived at his apartment, his door was slightly open. Oliver got his phone out of his pocket, ready to dial Felicity, until he remembered she wasn't going to answer anyway, he didn't want to bother Diggle either, so he put his phone back in his pocket.

Oliver slightly pushed the door open, his back flat against the wall. He peeked around the corner, but there seemed to be no one inside his apartment. He then took a couple of steps inside, only to pause after. There was an odd tension in the room, something wasn't right…

Suddenly a figure came out of Oliver's bedroom and in a split second he had given Oliver a tremendous shove. Oliver hit the door and fell down on his knees. He looked up at the figure. From the posture he could tell it was a man. Oliver blocked the only way out for the man. He stood up and made fists out of his hands. The man made fists too. Oliver punched him in the stomach which made the man flinch a little, however the man hit him back, in his face. Oliver groaned and then pushed him away. The man tumbled, stood up and raced toward the balcony. Oliver took two steps to his left and grabbed his extra bow with arrows out of a cabin.

"HEY!" He yelled at the man.

The man turned a little. Oliver leapt aside and shot an arrow in the man his arm. The man groaned and pulled the arrow out immediately. Oliver shot another arrow and another. But the man only groaned a little and pulled them out of his body again. The man faced the balcony again and tried to open the doors. Oliver forced himself to relax and focus as he shot another arrow right through the man his left leg, but it really did not make the man flinch anyhow. He then dropped the bow and the arrows and ran over to the man, hitting him on the head. The man dug for the second hit and pulled the arrow out of his leg in the meantime. Oliver then pushed him as hard as possible. The man slammed into the glass doors, causing the doors to shatter. The man flipped over and kicked Oliver on the knee. Oliver groaned as he grabbed for his knee. He breathed heavily, but pulled himself together as he got up and positioned himself in front of the man, ready to attack him if necessary. However, all of a sudden, the man pulled out a gun, pointing it at Oliver. This immediately made Oliver raise his hands. The man launched a bullet. Oliver darted to the side, but not fast enough. It caught him in the elbow, jolting him enough to make him bite his tongue. Anger rushed through him. Oliver hid behind a wall, narrowing down what he could do to defeat the man that was pointing a gun at him. Oliver had no exact plan. He took a deep breath before confronting the man again. He quickly ran up to him as he noticed the man did not seem to have any more bullets. Oliver pinned the man to the fence. One push and the man would fall down, eight stores. As he held him there, he could feel his blood roaring through his veins. He examined the man. He was wearing dark clothing and a dark mask. Oliver reached for the mask until the man lost his balance and fell over the fence. Oliver could grab for his hand in time and tried to hold on, but he felt the man's hand slipping out of his grip.

_Hold on.. hold. on. _

He tried to pull the man back up, but his hand was to sweaty to have a good grip on him. There was no possible way he could pull him back up and the man didn't seem to do much effort for being pulled up. Oliver clenched his teeth and fastened his grip, but it failed. Their hands lost touch and the man fell down. Oliver stepped back and turned his head, waiting for a loud thud, not wanting to see the man die in his fall. However, the thud was never heard. He stepped forward again and looked down.. but he didn't see the man lying on the ground.

'_What the hell..' _He whispered to himself.

Suddenly, he remembered that the man had come out of his room. Without any hesitation he ran over to his room and paused in the middle. He looked around to see what was odd. There seemed to be nothing wrong in the room.. except for the fact that his closet was slightly opened. Oliver walked over to his closet and opened the door. He looked at the pictures that were placed against the inside of the door. His gaze going down every single picture until his eyes crossed Felicity's picture. There was a small knife pierced through the picture.

'_Felicity..'_ Oliver whispered.

He pulled the knife out and took the picture off the door, rubbing his thumb over it. Soon after, he pulled out his phone and dialed Felicity's number.

"_This is Felicity Smoak, I'm probably not hanging around with my-" _– Voicemail.

Oliver dialed again.

_"This is Felicity Smoak- " _– Voicemail again.

Oliver let out a loud groan as he threw his phone at the wall, hitting it hard. He looked down at Felicity's picture. He had to go to her house and see if she was okay, because it seemed like right now, she wasn't going to be safe at all. Suddenly he remembered that he had been shot in his elbow. He looked down at it and saw blood flowing out of his wound.

_Damn it._

He grabbed a shirt out of his closet and wrapped it around his elbow as tight as possible, preventing more blood loss. He shoved Felicity's picture in his pocket, grabbed his phone from the ground and dialed Diggle's number.

_'Sorry Diggle, but I really need your help right now.'_

* * *

**WHAT IS GOING ON?! I don't know ;)**

**Please review, reviews are appreciated.**

**Thank you all for sticking around and reading my fanfiction! I'm so grateful, thank you.**


	10. Chapter 10

**THANKS AGAIN, for all of your support. It triggers me to write a bunch of new chapters. So here is chapter 10! Don't forget to review. If you have any further ideas for this fanfiction, please tell me! I like putting your ideas in my fanfiction. **

**CW owns it all!**

* * *

As soon as Diggle had gotten the call from Oliver he had left Lyla to rest and had made his way too Felicity's apartment as fast as possible. When he arrived at the building, Oliver was waiting for him, dressed up as the Arrow. Diggle noticed he had his bow in his right hand and that his left arm was just hanging there, loosely.

_Something must have happened.. _he thought to himself.

Diggle parked his car and got out. He ran over to Oliver and looked down at his arm, silently asking him if he was okay. Nevertheless, Oliver nodded his head yes as an answer that nothing was wrong.

"Don't worry about me. Felicity is our number one priority right now." Oliver said softly.

"What happened?" Diggle asked, now looking Oliver in the eyes. The only things his partner had mentioned in the phone call were that someone had broken into his house, that he was attacked and Felicity was in danger. But Oliver had never told any details, making the conversation on the phone to an end very quickly. Diggle hadn't even gotten the chance to ask any further questions.

"When I got home I noticed that my door was open. As soon as I got inside, this man revealed himself and attacked me. He was wearing dark clothing and a mask, so I couldn't figure out who it was. We fought for a while, until he pulled out a gun.. He shot me in my elbow,"

Oliver looked down at his left arm and Diggle nodded in understanding,

"and after that I managed to overpower him. I pushed him against the fence of the balcony, but he fell down. I wasn't able to pull him up because our grip wasn't tight enough. I didn't watch him fall but when I checked if he had reached the ground, he was nowhere to be seen. I still don't know if he's dead or not."

Oliver paused to catch some breath. He looked at his partner and noticed the understanding look that Diggle was giving in response. Diggle had not asked any further questions, which probably meant that he understood what had happened. If Oliver would have told this story to any other person, that other person would have probably asked a lot of other questions, which was not going to help at all in this situation. Oliver took another breath and continued.

"But after the fight I checked my bedroom and he had found all the pictures on the inside of my closet. I found a knife through Felicity's picture."

Oliver took out the picture he had shoved in his pocket before leaving his apartment. He held it up and Diggle looked at it and his face turned into a more concerned look than before. Now Diggle understood why Oliver was so worried. This truly did not look good.

"Have you tried calling her again?" Diggle asked, looking up from the picture to face Oliver.

Oliver nodded. "Yes, but with no result."

Diggle sighed. Oliver looked down at the picture one more time before shoving it back into his pocket. He looked back at his partner, nodded, and opened the main door of the building. Diggle followed Oliver, his gun pulled out for back up. They ran to the staircase and took three steps at a time. When they reached Felicity's apartment, the door was closed. Oliver knocked and listened for any footsteps or other sounds, but he heard nothing. Diggle had his gun pointed toward the door, ready to shoot if necessary.

"Maybe she's sleeping.." Diggle suggested, still pointing his gun to the door, but trying to ease the worry that they both had.

Oliver didn't respond to that remark.

"Felicity!" Oliver yelled. Maybe she would respond to his voice instead to someone knocking on her door.

"FELICITY!" It was Diggle who yelled her name and knocked on her door this time, his gun a little lowered.

Still no sound, no response.

Diggle took a deep breath before he broke the silence. He kicked in the door to Felicity's apartment and ran into the living room, he spun around to make sure there was no one around him, besides Oliver. Oliver had followed him in the mean while. As they both had their weapons up and examined the room they were in, they realized there was truly no one inside. The curtains were closed, which was odd because it was still in the midst of the day. And as the curtains were closed, no lights were on. Oliver walked over to the wall to turn on the light, but the electricity didn't respond.

"Felicity?" Oliver said her name out loud once again, waiting for a response that never came. Diggle walked to another door, he slightly opened it to reveal Felicity's bedroom. An empty bedroom.

"Where is she?" Diggle asked out loud as he turned around and looked at Oliver who had the same question written all over his face.

"We need light." Oliver said as he walked over to the curtains and opened them. Sunshine revealed itself and Oliver had to look away for his eyes to accustom to the light.

"It doesn't seem like anything happened here." Diggle noticed as he walked through the room they had stormed into, looking up to the ceiling and down to the ground. "It's clean, spotless."

Oliver pursed his lips as he followed Diggle's movements.

All of a sudden the electricity went on. Diggle and Oliver looked up at the lights to see them flicker as they awoken. Diggle turned the lights off as he squeezed his eyes and looked at the television that was now on.

"She must have watched television.. because it went on when the electricity started working again." He said as he pointed toward the tiny electronic that was standing on a little table. Oliver walked over to the television and turned it off.

Oliver's eyes gazed through the room as he wondered what else she could have done before going missing. His eyes stopped at a cup. He walked to the cup and held it up.

"Tea?" He asked as he showed the cup to Diggle.

Diggle nodded in agreement. Oliver handed him the cup so Diggle could look at it. Suddenly his eyes widened.

"Oliver.." He started, but stopped himself right after. Diggle had noticed that there were little white stains on the inside of the cup. As he looked closely he could tell they were drugs and they referred a lot to gamma-hydroxy-butyrat, GHB.

Diggle pointed at the white stains and also Oliver noticed and understood what Diggle thought.

"What side effects causes this drug?" Oliver asked as he got more concerned by the second.

"GHB can cause rapid unconsciousness, low heart beating, lowering of the blood pressure, headaches, convulsions and failure of breathing in worst case scenarios.." Diggle slowly said as he looked at Oliver, not wanting to make his friend more worried than he already was. However, not being worried was not even an option at the moment.

Oliver's eyes had widened as he listened to what Diggle said about the drug. Oliver knew that GHB was also known as the 'liquid XTC' or the 'rape drug'.. but he never knew what the drug could actually do to you. Oliver looked inside the cup again and could see that there were a lot of stains. Too many.

"She has been overdosed." Oliver concluded.

Diggle put the cup down on the kitchen counter and pulled out his phone. He searched for Felicity's number and dialed it. He put it on speaker as they both waited for an answer. But suddenly, a phone rang. Oliver turned around to where the sound came from. He slowly walked toward the sound and stopped in front of a chair. Felicity's coat and bag were placed on the chair. Oliver opened the bag and pulled out Felicity's phone.

Oliver stared at it. He stared at the phone that belonged to _Felicity Smoak_. Something she always had with her, but right now, it was with him. He hadn't moved after he found her phone. He was nailed to the ground. A lump in his throat and a pain in his chest. More worry was welling up and he couldn't believe he hadn't been there to protect her, to make sure nothing bad would happen to her. He had let her down again and now she was somewhere, unsafe. He remembered the words that she had once spoken to him, before she was kidnapped by Slade. It was in the mansion where he had told her he loved her. Where he had told her to stay, because he wanted her to be safe, sort of. But obviously she was rejecting at that moment.

"_But I don't want to be safe.. I wanna be with you and the others_… -_Unsafe_."

Oliver shut his eyes as he remembered her saying those words to him. At that moment she had never stopped looking into his eyes as she had insisted on coming along with him and the others.._ unsafe_.

But now she truly was unsafe.. however, not with him or the others. She was alone and nobody knew where she was. Expect for the one who took her.

He didn't know where to start. He didn't know why someone would take Felicity, because as far as he was concerned, nobody besides Slade wanted to hurt the woman he loved.

_The woman he loved.._

He felt stupid for never telling Felicity how he really felt about her. He felt stupid for never letting her truly in and keeping her on a distance while he knew how she felt about him. He should have listened to Diggle, he should have listened to _his girl.._

He couldn't think about this now. He had to figure out a way to find her. To make sure she was safe again, because Oliver remembered one more thing Felicity had told him once.

"_You are not alone-_"

Oliver looked over his shoulder and crossed Diggle's eyes, who looked at him and gave him a supportive look.

"No, I'm not _alone_," He whispered to himself.

"_- and I believe in you."_

Oliver tightened his grip on Felicity's phone as he clenched his teeth followed by his whisper.

_"_and you don't have to stop _believing_ in me."

* * *

**That was it hehe. Please review, they are appreciated! Thanks again.**

Until next time ;)


	11. Chapter 11

**Sorry it took so long to update! I have been real busy and I got a new laptop today, so I was finally able to finish this chapter completely. Thank you all for your incredible support and reviews. It makes me smile everytime. SO YES. Please review! If you have any upcoming ideas for this fanfiction, lemme know.**

**CW OWNS IT ALL.**

* * *

Diggle and Oliver sat across from each other, at a table, going through several documents in the hope to find some information to where Felicity was captured. _If_ she was still captured. Both men didn't want to think about a non-alive Felicity, because life without a bubbly light around them felt empty. The last couple of hours had been exhausting, stressfull and extremely hard. Diggle was constantly glaring at Oliver, making sure he was still holding it together. Because although Oliver might seemed okay, he definitely wasn't. The young woman that made him smile and feel alive wasn't there to give him the positive energy and Diggle was afraid that Oliver was slowly shutting down all faith now.

Diggle glared at Oliver again, but the young man was totally caught up in the documents and was showing no emotion whatsoever. While Diggle looked at Oliver, he remembered that Laurel and Oliver had broken up and of course Diggle knew exactly why and for whom. The breakup had made it even more clear that Oliver wasn't ignoring his feelings for Felicity anymore. Diggle was glad about that, but it had made the situtation even more complicated than before. Just when Oliver wanted his girl in his life, she was about to be ripped from it.

Diggle sighed and wandered off to the documens again. Thus far, they hadn't found a strong lead. It was difficult finding one though. It was always Felicity who did this sort of work. She had the skills, speed and ability to make this job as easy as breathing.. but right now it was only him and Oliver and no one else. Besides, they didn't really want any other help. The main reason was that neither of them knew who the enemy was this time. At first Diggle had insisted on asking lieutenant Lance for help, but Oliver had made it quite clear that he didn't want to risk another life.

Oliver suddenly let out a loud sigh as he tore the document that he had been holding the past couple of minutes. This wasn't helping at all. Felicity had no phone on her, which made it hard to track her down. There was also little information about her, so it wasn't quite clear who could be a threat to her. Her father? No. He seemed to be somewhere in Canada, not really nearby, besides that they couldn't come up with a decent reason for him to kidnap Felicity. Her father wanted nothing from her, which he had already shown by walking out of her life while she was just a teenager. Her mother? No. She was probably too drunk and too caught up in the Vegas world to even give a crap about her daughter. No. It was someone they didn't know off. Someone so irrelevant that they wouldn't even notice was a chance of being a decent suspect.. Then Oliver remembered something.

"Diggle.. didn't Felicity have a stalker back in the days. Wasn't that the main reason she moved to Starling City."

Diggle looked at Oliver and he placed his hands in front of him, folded. He understood where this was going.

"What if her stalker found out she lived in Starling City?" Oliver continued and didn't stop looking at Diggle as he waited for a response.

Oliver seemed hopeful and he really didn't want to steal away that hope that Oliver was hanging onto right now, but Diggle believed it was unlikely that it was Felicity's ex-stalker who kidnapped her.

"Oliver, a stalker most likely stays in the background.. that's part of being a stalker. A psychopath usually turns into a kidnapper and .." but he stopped talking, the pain in Oliver's eyes was unbearable. Diggle tried to ease the pain. "I'm just saying that the stalker isn't the one. It must be someone else."

Oliver clenched his teeth and looked back down at the documents. Then his phone started buzzing. He quickly reached for it and answered it. Diggle looked at him, waiting for a sign that told him who it was on the phone.

"Lieutenant?"

There it was. No Felicity, no one else but Lance.

_"I'm calling you to tell you that we have found Grayson Sanchez. He was in his basement in his house the entire time.. We don't know why he stayed in his basement for so long after he had bought that hoodie, but he is being interrogated right now, so we probably get more information soon."_

"Lieutenant.. when can you hand him over?" Oliver asked.

"_The interrogation will take at least one more hour, if not, more. I will give you a call when he's done."_

"Thank you." Oliver said, without knowing what else to say further.

"No, thank you, yet again you showed that this city needs a mask to stop criminal activity."

Oliver did not respond to that, he swallowed as Lance ended the conversation by hanging up.

"They have Sanchez.." Oliver quietly spoke. "But Digg.. you have to go.-"

Diggle said no word as he listened to what Oliver had to say to him.

"I want you to go to Lyla, help her with her pregnancy, make sure you build up that family. I lost my family, I don't want you to lose yours. I also don't want you to get hurt and make Lyla lose her man again and your unborn child to lose its father."

Diggle grinned. He was glad that Oliver wanted him to be safe, however Diggle also wanted Oliver to be safe and that wasn't going to happen either. So him leaving Oliver behind wasn't going to happen at all, so Diggle began;

"But what would you do without your black driver?" that made Oliver smile a bit. "Besides, a brother never lets a soldier go into a battle alone. Haven't I told you that before? So no. I'm not going to Lyla. She understands the situation we're in. We are going to safe Felicity together and we are going to face Sanchez together. I joined your crusade knowing it wasn't going to be risk free."

Oliver nodded in understanding. He actually had felt that coming. Diggle was the best partner he could have asked for.

"But, what now?" Diggle asked.

"Waylon's house." Oliver replied, without any hesitation. He had wanted to suggest this earlier, but he knew Diggle wasn't going to agree with the plan. "I still don't trust that guy."

Even though Diggle wanted to leave Waylon alone, the only way possible was for Oliver to find out he was innocent and then leave him alone. So Diggle nodded and stood up.

"Let's go then. I drive." Diggle said with a grin as he walked away.

* * *

She was shivering and shaking. The cold was unbearable. Her head was throbbing and her body felt weak. She had her eyes closed as she focused on her breathing. Filling her lungs with as much air as possible. She tried moving her arms and legs but she couldn't. She decided that she wanted to find out where she was. Last thing she remembered was that she had been watching TV and suddenly felt nauseous. She remembered falling on the ground and going unconscious, but she didn't know what happened after that.

She slowly opened her eyes, but she had to blink a couple of times before she could narrow down where she was. However, there was a light pointed to her and she had to blink some more to get used to the lighting. She then saw that it was a lamp pointed towards here. She quietly looked around and realized everything was out of place. The lamp in front of her was standing on a desk.. and the desk was standing on the ceiling. The room she was in was long and big and very light because of the white paint on the walls. There were no windows and the door was made out of wood. She looked down at her body. She saw her arms and legs tied up and it seemed like she was lying on what looked like a couch. There were also tubes next to her arms and something was sticking into her skin, blood rushing out of her body or into her body, she couldn't tell. Her headache kicked in again and she squeezed her eyes shut, she groaned as she wished for her pain to leave her head. Suddenly she realized something. The desk and the lamp weren't out of place. _She _was out of place. She opened her eyes again. The couch she was on was standing upside down. The top of her head was facing the ground and her feet were facing the ceiling. That's why her headache was such a pain in her ass. Blood was rushing to her head, making it hard for her to get rid of the throbs.

All of a sudden the wooden door opened. She saw a figure get into the room, but she couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman. She wanted to say something to it, but she couldn't get the words out of her mouth. The person walked up to her and looked at the tubes, writing something down on a piece of paper. Then the person kneeled down to face her. She looked at the person and the person looked back. Still she couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman because it was wearing black clothing and a mask.

Suddenly the person started talking, but the voice was robotic, probably caused by the same machine the Arrow always used.

"Hello Felicity _Smoak. _Did you get a nice rest? Don't worry. You're safe here. We will take care of you."

The person started laughing, stood up, pulled the tubes one more time and walked away, closing the wooden door behind it.

* * *

**Even I don't know what's happening.. or do I? Thanks for sticking around!  
Don't forget to review ;)**


	12. Chapter 12

**I feel stupid for thanking you guys in every beginning of a chapter, but I'm telling the truth when I say that your support is the best ever. Here's chapter 12. It was difficult writing this one, because I wanted to do sooo many things in this chapter.. but I decided to cut a scene in two. So you'll get the second half of the last scene in chapter 13. **

**Have fun reading, I tried my best into making this chapter as great as possible!**

* * *

Felicity tried moving hysterically as she twisted her body in every angle possible. She could barely move her arms and legs and the strength she put into her body to unleash herself exhausted her. Her headache was getting more painful because of the upside down position she was in, but the dehydration was even worse, which was also a big problem in combination with her headache.

"HELLO?!" She yelled. However, her voice sounded shaky and not even loud at all. No one could be able to hear her whatsoever.

Felicity groaned and she twisted her body again, but she started to really realize that it wasn't going to help and ease the situation. She was never going to be able to get out of this position and even if she was, she was too weakened to fight against those on the other side of the wooden door. She had no other options but to stay where she was and maintain calm.

However, maintaining calm wasn't exactly possible either. Felicity got more scared by the second. Every time she looked at her arms, she saw the tubes and her blood running out of her body.

It also scared her that she didn't know where she was, she figured she was in some sort of basement as there were no windows, but besides that she had no clue what else. Also, she had no idea who would even kidnap her or what someone would want from her. Why would they take her blood? Why would they examine her? But she had no answers on any of her questions.

Her biggest wonder was if Oliver and Diggle had noticed that she had gone missing. She didn't know how much time had gone by ever since she had been in this lab, but her life revolved around team Arrow 24/7, so her disappearance should have been noticeable.

Felicity remembered she had gotten into a fight with Oliver just before she had met up with Waylon and before she had gone missing. Maybe he thought that she was still mad at him, that she did not want to be near him now. Maybe he hadn't even noticed her being MIA...

However, Diggle was there too.

_Did he miss her? Had he noticed?_

Her thoughts were interrupted.

The wooden door slowly opened, letting in some more light. A figure walked in. By the length it seemed to be the same person as she had seen earlier, but still she wasn't sure. The black clothing and the mask were definitely misleading her.

"Hello miss Smoak." The robotic voice spoke.

The person closed the door behind it and Felicity could see a glass of water in its hand. Her eyes widened and looked pleadingly at the glass. The person started laughing in an amused tone, this made Felicity shiver.

It placed the glass on the desk and walked over to Felicity. The person kneeled down and looked at her. Its face, or should she call it the mask, was examining her entire body. The duration of the examination seemed long and Felicity just looked at the person with her angry and intimidating face, but she wondered if it had any effect on the person, she believed not. After a couple of seconds the person had apparently come to a conclusion, because it stood up and walked over to something that was behind Felicity. She heard the footsteps behind her until the person stopped walking. A click was heard and suddenly the couch she was on, started moving. The couch was going clockwise and Felicity closed her eyes so she could focus on her breathing instead of focus on her body that had to adjust to the normal position she was going to again. When the couch stopped moving she opened her eyes and she saw she wasn't hanging in the upside down position anymore and she let out a sigh of relief. Instantly the pressure on her head was lowering and the throbbing became weaker.

Felicity heard the footsteps again and the person stopped beside her. She turned her face into its direction and she just silently looked at the person. It was now searching for something in its pocket, only to reveal a small knife after the search. Felicity held onto her breath. She was scared of what was about to come next. Was it going to stab her? Kill her? Scratch her? Hurt her anyhow?

However, in her disbelief, the person cut the ropes that had her legs tied onto the couch. When it released her legs she shook them and the tip of her shoes touched the floor. But her legs felt wobbly and as the person also released her arms she completely fell down on the ground. She cried out in pain as she hit the floor and she roughly pulled out the tube that was stuck in her arm.

The person grabbed the full blood bag that was hanging besides the couch and also grabbed the tubes that Felicity had thrown onto the ground.

_"Why me?"_ She quietly asked, pain hearable in her voice. She looked up at the person, but she got no answer as the person grabbed the glass of water and placed it on the ground in front of Felicity. Felicity just looked at the glass. She really wanted to drink the liquid, but she was scared it was something more than water.

"It is just water." The person said, as if it had read her thoughts. Suddenly she realized the person wasn't talking with a robotic voice anymore. In fact, a manly voice was coming out of the person.

_A man._

This was creeping her out even more. She looked up at him again. Squeezing her eyes to make it obvious that she had heard his real voice.

"Who.. are.. you?" Felicity softly asked.

He must have realized that his voice was normal when he had spoken to her, because he growled and kneeled down in front of her. He grabbed her chin and made her look at him. She stared deeply into the mask that was hiding a very annoyed man now. The man tightened his grip even more and Felicity let out a groan of pain. She swallowed and was afraid to say anything more. The man was intimidating her and she now really came to the realization she had no chance of winning. She had to wait until she was fully recovered of the headache and she could stand up normally. But right now, all she could do was sit there on the ground, being intimidated by the man who had kidnapped her.

Suddenly his grip softened and his hand let go of her chin.

_"_I am your second biggest nightmare." The man said.

He slowly got up but stayed put in front of Felicity. Felicity was frowning. Why _second _biggest nightmare? That made no sense. How did this man know what her nightmares were. Felicity wanted to ask the question but the man had raised his hand and before she could say the words that she wanted to say he had hit her in the face. Felicity let out a shriek. Her hand flew to her cheek to give it a comforting touch, but it didn't help. Her head was pounding and her cheek was hurting. She then tasted something bitter on the inside of her mouth and she realized it was blood. Her teeth had crushed itself into her tongue and inside of her cheek. She had also bit her lip and a bit of blood was dripping down her chin. The man simply shook his hand he had hit Felicity with.

Tears were welling up in Felicity's eyes. But not because she was scared, but because the pain lingered on. She wanted to hurt this man and break his bones into a million pieces. Nevertheless, there was really nothing she could do. She was a victim, apparently stuck into her second biggest nightmare, and unless she was found, she was going to be a dead girl too.

After a couple of minutes of Felicity trying to get rid of the extra pain that the man had cost her, the man himself had decided he was done. He looked down at the vulnerable Felicity once again and walked away, leaving a hurt, speechless and screaming young woman behind.

_"SOMEBODY HELP!"_

* * *

Diggle and Oliver arrived at Waylon's house. From the inside of the car, Oliver and Diggle just looked at it. It was getting dark and there seemed to be no one home as the lights in the house were all off. Oliver was in his Arrow suit, in case someone would catch him snooping and he didn't want to end up in the daily newspaper as _Oliver Queen the burglar._

They got out of their car and crossed the road to get to Waylon's house. They avoided the front door and went straight for the back. Diggle tried the first door they passed and the second, but neither of the doors was open.

"They're locked." Diggle said.

Oliver nodded in confirmation.

"Step back." He then demanded quietly.

Diggle nodded and did what was told. Oliver stepped back also and pulled out an Arrow to shoot. He slowly positioned it in his bow and aimed on the lock of the second door. When he had his aim right, he fired. The lock and the handle of the door shot off and the door automatically opened. Diggle grinned, being pleased with what the clever solution Oliver had brought.

Oliver hung his bow across his shoulder again and got into the house. Diggle looked around one last time before following Oliver. It was way too dark to see something in the house, so both Oliver and Diggle took out flashlights. They were prepared for this. They didn't want to turn on the lights, in case Waylon would come home or a neighbor would notice something was off.

"What are we looking for Oliver?" Diggle asked, as he looked around and examined the room.

"Prove that this man is nothing but right." Oliver replied.

Diggle walked over to a table in the middle of the living room and grabbed the laptop that was on it. Thereupon, he sat down on the couch and opened the laptop. The laptop was still on and Diggle saw several pages opened.

In the meantime, Oliver had made his way up to the first floor. He walked into a bedroom what seemed to be Waylon's bedroom. However, for a man, it was quite a tidied up bedroom. And at first sight, Waylon didn't seem like the tidy person at all.

Oliver opened the first closet he saw and searched through the clothing. But there was actually nothing more than clothing in there. He then went over to the second closet that was in the room. When he opened the first drawer, a pile of sweaters was showed. He closed the drawer again and opened the second drawer. This, however, did not show men's clothing. In fact, the drawer was filled with tank tops and dresses.

Oliver frowned. Why would a single man have women's clothing in his closet? He grabbed a dress and looked at it. It wasn't a children's dress, but definitely from a woman. Oliver put the dress back and closed the drawer.

"OLIVER?!" Diggle suddenly yelled, trying to get his best mates attention. Within seconds Oliver was with him and Diggle turned the laptop around to show Oliver what he had found.

"Diggle?" Oliver asked as he looked at him and waited for an explanation.

"Waylon is surely not the good guy I thought he was.. out of these websites, he seems to be floating around in the world of hoes. And the last opened page I saw, was from a website that.. rents women.."

Diggle didn't want to attack Oliver with the information he had found, so he had spoken out those two sentences as slowly and careful as possible Diggle was now completely sure that if Waylon had anything to do with the disappearance of Felicity.. Waylon was going to be a dead man soon.

"I knew something was off." Oliver softly said. He stood up and started walking around the house again.

"FELICITY!" He yelled, in the hope she would answer him.

Diggle was standing up too and placed the laptop back on the table. He followed Oliver and stayed quiet.

"Felicity!" Oliver yelled again, a bit softer now.

They walked through a hallway and opened every door that they passed. Diggle couldn't believe that this was such a big house, owned by one person. After opening several doors, but not finding anything they approached the last door at the end of the hallway. It was a light wooded, old door and different from the others.

Oliver tried the handle, but it was unmovable. He gestured Diggle to step back so he could fire an arrow at the lock. Oliver quickly grabbed an arrow and before Diggle could even wink, he had shot it and the door flew open.

A closet.

"_Damn it." _Oliver said, revealing his annoyance.

All of a sudden they heard a door open. It was the front door. Oliver and Diggle turned around. They heard a man's voice and some laughter.

_"Waylon's home.."_ Diggle whispered.

"Good." Oliver replied.

* * *

**Oops. Wrong wooden door? You never know.. P****lease review, follow, favorite. It makes me happy and it's really appreciated.**

**Until next time ;)**


	13. Chapter 13

**THANK YOU ALL for you incredible responses. Part 2 of the scene from chapter 12 is here. Enjoy and thank you all !**

**CW owns it all, of course.**

* * *

Waylon opened the door to his house. He smiled to the girl next to him and winked as he gestured her inside. When she got inside he closed the door behind him and grabbed for her waist, pulling her into his arms with her back against him. She started laughing and released herself from his embrace to turn around and look him in the eyes playfully. She walked backwards pulling his tie so he had to follow her lead. She licked her lips as she arrived at the couch and let herself fall, pulling Waylon on top of her.

"You know.." she started, trailing her hands down his back, "you never told me your name."

Waylon let out a little laugh and leaned in to kiss the girl.

Oliver shot an arrow and hit a vase next to Waylon and the girl. The vase shattered into several pieces. The girl screamed and Waylon looked at the pieces spread across the floor.

"It's Waylon." Oliver growled.

The girl looked across the room and screamed again, in shock she pushed Waylon off of her. She stumbled off the couch and fell down on her knees. She tried to back off but a table was blocking her way. Her eyes were wide open as she pressed herself against the table, afraid of the Arrow in front of her.

In the meantime, Waylon had gotten up and stood partly in front of the girl, his arms crossed, but a bit shaky. This was the second time he had an interaction with the Arrow and he was afraid what was about to come next.

"What are you doing in my house?! You are invading my privacy." Waylon said angrily but determined to get the Arrow out of his house.

Oliver had an arrow pointed toward Waylon. In the meantime Diggle had positioned himself behind a wall. He and Oliver had discussed that it was better for Diggle to stay in the background, so that Waylon couldn't easily connect the dots that the Arrow was actually Oliver. Diggle had his gun aimed at Waylon for back up, in case Waylon decided to do something stupid and attack Oliver.

"Nice seeing you again too. Who is _she?" _ Oliver now pointed the arrow at the girl. She shrieked and started crying, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"She is just a girl." Waylon answered hesitantly.

"Just a _girl?"_ Oliver repeated, now cocking his head to the right to face the girl.

"She isn't just some girl. I believe.. you paid her. She is a hooker. Right?" He said, still looking at her.

She slowly nodded yes.

"How old are you?" Oliver asked, still directing his attention at the girl. "an honest answer please."

"twent-" she stuttered. "seventeen sir."

Oliver had seen that coming and focused his attention to Waylon again.

"What do you think you're doing? I could be calling the cops on you."

This scared Waylon. Last thing he wanted to do was going to jail for hooking up with a minor.

Oliver groaned.

"You-" he said, pointing the arrow at the girl and then to the door. "LEAVE."

The girl yelped, got up and stumbled to the door and within seconds she was gone.

Waylon sighed and bit his bottom lip.

_"Why are you here?"_ He slowly whispered, afraid of a sudden outburst of the vigilante in front of him.

"Last and first time we met was in an alley. You told me you got 50 dollars and a hoodie from a man. Quite surprisingly, you live in a very big house. A bit too big for someone who's single and is eager to get the 50 dollars."

Waylon swallowed. He knew there was no way around that.

"Or did you need that extra bit of cash to pay for _another_ girl?"

Waylon clenched his teeth. He had no idea on how to even give answers to the Arrow.

"Why would you even pay for a fun night when you obviously have a love interest."

Waylon looked quizzically now. How did the Arrow know all of this? He squeezed his eyes a bit and looked at the vigilante in front of him. He sure as hell had no idea where this was going and what the Arrow knew even more.

"What are you _suggesting?" _Waylon asked angrily.

"Felicity Smoak. I bet you know her."

Waylon swallowed.

"I don't know.. Felicity Smoak."

"So you have not been to dinner with her? You have not walked with her through a park and you have not had lunch with her this afternoon."

Waylon flinched and bit his lip, he could taste the blood that was caused by the lip bite.

"No." He let out.

Oliver stepped closer to Waylon, to intimidate him more. He didn't understand why Waylon was denying this. Waylon might have had a lot of money and the ability to do great things in his life but he sure as hell wasn't smart.

"I know you're lying, _Waylon._ And I need you to tell me where she is." Oliver growled.

"Who?!"

Oliver got angry and shot an arrow at the lamp that was hanging above Waylon. The lamp fell down and Waylon had to jump away to not get hit by it. His knee hit the table and he flinched in pain, rubbing his knee. That was going to leave a bruise.

"Where is _Felicity Smoak_." Oliver asked again, on a harsher tone, demanding an answer.

Waylon was still shocked by the lamp incident. He was breathing heavily and had no idea of how to get out of this situation. Yes. He knew Felicity Smoak. Yes, they went on several dates.. however..

"Didn't you just see I was with someone else _but_ Felicity." Waylon annoyingly said.

"That's odd, isn't it? You meet up with a wonderful girl like Felicity and you decide to hook up with more. Didn't she trust you. Aren't you neglecting her?" Oliver responded.

Diggle could hear that Oliver was losing it, that he was talking through his emotions too much right now. But he couldn't do anything but witness what was about to come next.

Waylon was ignoring all of the Arrow's his questions. Instead, he rambled on himself.

"Why are you searching for her? Isn't she just home, I bet you're so stupid that you didn't even check there first.. Besides how do _you _even know her?"

The questions came out before Waylon could even rethink them. But he did want to know. What was the connection between a blonde girl and a vigilante? Then all of a sudden he remembered the interaction with Oliver Queen this afternoon at his front door. Oliver had abruptly asked where Felicity was too. These thoughts made Waylon laugh. Oliver responded by frowning. That laugh meant no good.

"Oliver Queen. Woah. Never did I expect that."

Oliver clenched his teeth. That laugh really did mean no good. Despite the comment of Waylon he didn't respond but stayed quiet.

Diggle had noticed the laugh and the remark too. Was this the time to come out and give back up? Nevertheless, Diggle wasn't quite sure whether or not Waylon had connected the dots. He held onto his breath as he carefully listened what Waylon had to comment next.

"What does _mr Queen_ see in that girl that he has to send the vigilante to check on her. Never did I think he would even be interested in her. Although I saw it in his eyes at the restaurant the other night. He didn't like seeing Felicity with another man, but I never thought that he would be _this _desperate." Waylon stated, pointing and moving his finger up and down at the Arrow.

"Let me put it this way. I don't know where Felicity Smoak is and even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you. Besides, mr Queen has no chance anymore. She doesn't want him. She never wanted him. I was there when she needed someone and he was only being bossy toward her. Hard to get doesn't always work, tell that to mr Queen."

"Enough!" Oliver shouted as he shot an arrow in Waylon's arm. Waylon yelped in pain and held onto the arrow, but was afraid to pull it out.

Diggle sighed in relieve. Waylon had been stupid enough to believe that Oliver Queen would send the vigilante, instead of connecting the real dots between Oliver and the Arrow. But the sudden rambles that had come out of Waylon had made Oliver real pissed and Diggle was afraid that it wasn't going to end well with the guy. No, he had no sympathy for him, but if they wanted to know where Felicity really was, he had to stay alive. Diggle was ready to warn Oliver if necessary.

Oliver walked over to a very vulnerable Waylon and kneeled down beside him. He held his mouth a few inches away from Waylon's ear and whispered.

"_I don't kill people unless it's absolutely necessary. It's not my opening move._"

He whispered threateningly as he pushed the arrow deeper into Waylon's flesh.

"_You know exactly where she is and you might not tell me now, but you will tell me eventually._"

Waylon cried out in pain, but didn't say a word.

_"If Felicity so much as gets a paper cut, I will burn your entire world to ashes. Do you understand?"  
_

Waylon nodded as fast as possible and Oliver stood up, pulling the arrow out of Waylon's arm.

Waylon let out the breath he had been holding onto to and let himself lay on the ground. Oliver looked down at him and walked away. He had almost aimed the arrow that had hit Waylon's arm at his chest. He almost killed the guy and if he was going to stay in this house any longer, he was going to kill him eventually. He gestured Diggle to come, because Waylon was only paying attention to his arm now. Diggle lowered his gun and walked over to Oliver. Oliver turned around and walked out of the house with Diggle following him.

"_I can't do this Diggle._" Oliver whispered as he kept on walking. "I almost killed him."

When they arrived at the car, Oliver turned around to face Diggle.

"I don't know where to start. I don't know if Waylon did something to Felicity. I don't know." Oliver sighed and looked at Waylon's house.

"You can do this Oliver. _She_ is depending on you. On us. And I sure as hell can't do this alone." Diggle grinned at his last statement and placed a hand on Oliver's shoulder to squeeze it firmly.

"She needs the man in the hood. And I only know one man in a hood." Diggle continued as he let go of Oliver's shoulder. "You controlled yourself out there. You didn't kill him. You only put the fear of God into him like you always do."

"Felicity doesn't like it when I put the fear of God into someone..." Oliver quietly said.

"She wasn't there, was she?" Diggle responded.

"Exactly my point! She isn't here Diggle and I don't know where else she would be then there, in that house."

"Felicity," Diggle paused and Oliver looked back at Diggle, "Felicity used to think that the vigilante was a criminal. But you showed her that the vigilante is a hero. She told me numerous times that she never had a hero to look up to, until you showed up and showed her. She believes in you. You know that. Don't let her lose that. That's probably the only thing she is holding onto right now. Her trust into you, in us."

Oliver sighed. He knew Felicity was believing in him. But he was scared. Scared that Felicity might didn't think the same of him anymore. That maybe Waylon was right. That maybe she didn't want him anymore, that he was the one neglecting her.

But despite that, he couldn't let her down. He had to show her that he would _never _let her down. That his feelings for her were real. He had to not only show her, but tell her. And the only way of making that possible was to find her. Show her. Tell her. And make sure she would never leave his sight again.

The more he thought of her, the more he wanted her to be with him again, the more his feelings for her grew. He missed her and he felt stupid for the fact that a situation like this had finally made him truly come to the conclusion that he loved Felicity Smoak. He loved her and there was nothing he could do about it. There was nothing he_ wanted_ to do about it anymore. He was ready for the healthy relationship he had always been hoping for. He was ready for _her._

"_You're right_." Oliver finally said. "We can do this. Together."

"Together." Diggle replied. Happy with the conclusion his young friend had made. He knew this was hard for Oliver. He knew that admitting to his feelings was the worst quality that he had. But yet he had done it and Diggle was proud of that.

Suddenly Diggle's phone buzzed. Oliver frowned and waited for Diggle to reveal the message. Diggle unlocked his phone and looked at who had texted him. He stopped breathing when he noticed the message was from a very beloved young woman.

"It's_ Felicity._" Diggle let out.

Oliver immediately grabbed Diggle's phone, but Diggle tried to let Oliver know not to read it. However, he failed. Oliver spoke the words written in the message.

_Stop looking for me. I'm safe.  
Tell Oliver to continue on with his life._

Another message arrived. _  
_  
_You need to too.  
I cannot run away from my emotional problems  
if they keep on surrounding me.._

And another.  
_  
Goodbye.. and thank you._

* * *

**How do you feel about Waylon now? And where in g'ds sake is Felicity? Who sent the texts?**

**Please comment your thoughts on this chapter. Feel free to leave any ideas for upcoming chapters also, I do consider putting them in there ;)  
Follows and favorites are also highly appreciated.**

**Thanks again!**

**Until next time ;)**


	14. Chapter 14

**I'm so extremely sorry that it took so long to update. But, I have a pretty good reason. I'm going on vacation this friday for two weeks and because I didn't want you guys to wait for another chapter for two weeks I have been writing my fingers off. I uploaded the upcoming chapters too, so I can easily update Runaway from the poolside ;) It might took a long time to update this chapter, but I can assure you that my vacation won't bring a stop to updating. So yeah, here's chaper 14! I hope you like it.**

**Oh, of course, reviews are really appreciated! Favorites and Follows too ;)**

* * *

After reading the last text out loud, Oliver fell completely silent. He swallowed but didn't react. Did he harm Waylon for no reason? Did he just almost _kill_ Waylon for _no_ reason? He couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe Felicity would just send these random texts to Diggle and only Diggle. Felicity hadn't even bothered to send _him_ anything. The worry was still boiling inside of him. This was making no sense at all and the suspense was fooling around with his mind. He didn't know where to find the truth. He felt like he was locked up in a box and couldn't get out. He hoped she was just casually joking around and would appear any second to pull him into a hug. However, that was not going to happen any time soon.

Diggle watched his friend. He could feel the worry and suspense that Oliver was feeling and he felt sorry for him. Diggle was well aware of the fact that Felicity would _never _send texts like these. Even though she was the IT girl, she always made sure she told things in person. It was also quite odd that she would only text him and not Oliver too, while everybody knew that Felicity did not want Oliver to be worried about anything, especially her. Diggle wasn't quite sure whether or not Oliver was thinking the same thing, but this was _not _Felicity. He didn't want to mention it yet, because he didn't want Oliver to be more worried than he already was.

He didn't blame Oliver for being worried though, because he was too. It's not normal for someone to go MIA all of a sudden. It's not normal to find drugs in a cup she had lastly been drinking from. To get several texts that certainly aren't from her. To find out her love interest, was only using her for g'd may know what.

Diggle snapped out of his thoughts when Oliver handed his phone back to him without saying anything. Diggle grabbed the phone and put it back into his pocket. They stood there in silence and somehow Diggle could feel that Oliver knew exactly what he had been thinking. _No, this was not Felicity._ But neither of them had the urge to say it out loud.

Suddenly Oliver's phone started buzzing and Oliver immediately took it out.

"_It's Sara_." He whispered, to reassure Diggle that it wasn't Felicity again.

"What does she say?" Diggle asked. Hoping it was something good, that Sara was okay, even though she was with the League of Assassins.

When he had first heard Sara was going back to them, he had absolutely disagreed. The League of Assassins was wrong in so many ways. They manipulated and killed and they couldn't see the good in anything. Besides that, he didn't want Sara to be ripped away from her loved ones again. She had left Laurel behind, lieutenant Lance, Sin and the team. Though lieutenant Lance and Sin had taken it very well, Laurel was trying to stay strong as well.. but she didn't really do a great job on that.

"I had promised Laurel to contact Sara so the two of them could talk. After the promise I had tried contacting Sara but I hadn't heard from her until now." Oliver said, looking down at the text. "But, Sara just texted to say that she will call me in 15 minutes.. I guess I'll have to go to Laurel." Oliver finally said, wandering off a bit.

He surely didn't want to go to Laurel. After dinner at Korso's last night, he had driven her home and he had dropped her off, but before he had said his goodbyes, she had asked him if he wanted to stay over, however he had kindly suggested no. When Laurel had asked why not, Oliver had explained to her that it wasn't going to work between the two of them. The pain on Laurel's face that moment was unbearable and he still felt sorry for hurting her feelings like that. She had yelled at him, asking if she was his rebound but he had made it quite clear that she was not, even though he still had his doubts about it. When she had yelled and asked for an explanation, he couldn't give it to her. After all, the explanation wasn't even needed, because Laurel had yelled at him that she realized he must have found someone else, because she could see it in his eyes. Oliver had not responded to that.

Now Oliver had to go back to Laurel and he was not in the mood. He was afraid she was still hurt and broken and he didn't want to see that in front of him. He had enough on his sleeve already.

Diggle noticed the odd behavior and he realized Oliver surely didn't want to go to Laurel's.

"Do you want me to come along?" Diggle asked.

Oliver looked up at Diggle and kindly smiled. "No, I'll be fine. I won't be staying there long, hopefully." Oliver replied before turning off his phone again.

Diggle nodded in understanding and sighed.

Oliver really had too much on his sleeve.

* * *

Laurel was making herself some coffee when she heard the three knocks on the door. She stayed quiet before finally realizing that she had to open up. She poured the coffee into a mug and brought it along to the door. When she opened the door she couldn't believe it was Oliver standing there.

Laurel groaned and rolled her eyes before trying to shut the door, however, Oliver managed to put a foot down to prevent it from closing.

"What do you want?" Laurel said on an irritated tone. As she leaned against the door, trying to keep Oliver out of her house. She took a sip of her coffee as she looked around the room. It truly was a mess and she only realized that whenever someone knocked on her door. The realization mostly followed by shame.

"I don't want anything from you Laurel, but Sara does."

Laurel swallowed her coffee too fast, causing the cough she couldn't control.

"Laurel?" Oliver pleaded.

Laurel let out another cough and bit her lip. Of course she had not forgotten about her request to Oliver, but she thought he wasn't willing to bring her in contact with Sara anymore, especially after the breakup.

She slowly pushed herself away from the door and Oliver stumbled in. When their eyes met there was nothing but an awkward silence.

"Hi." Laurel then said, breaking the silence.

She wanted to take another sip from her coffee, but decided to put it away instead, her throat was hurting as hell now.

"Sara will be calling in 3 minutes." Oliver said as he showed his phone to hand it over to Laurel.

"Thank you.." Laurel replied, as she took the phone from Oliver. She looked down at it and held onto it tight. She was finally going to be able to talk to her sister again and no one was going to take this precious moment away.

Suddenly Laurel remembered that Oliver was still standing in front of her.

"I thought you weren't going to bring me in contact with Sara anymore." Laurel quietly said as she gave Oliver a look of appreciation.

He just looked at her in awe.

"Laurel.. just because.. _I broke up with you_.. doesn't mean I don't want to see you happy anymore. You lost your sister once, because of me, and I'm not letting that happen a second time."

Soon after Oliver ended his explanation, his phone started ringing. Laurel's eyes sparkled as she looked down at the phone again.

"Grab yourself something to drink Ollie, this might take a moment." She mumbled as she walked away to her bedroom. The last thing Oliver could pick up was the "Hey Sara!" before Laurel eventually closed the door shut behind her.

* * *

Minutes went by before Laurel finally came out of her room. She seemed genuinely happy and relaxed and Oliver was glad to see her in this state. The phone call had really brighten her up.

"Thanks again, Oliver." She said as she gave his phone back with a smile.

"How is she?" he then asked. Because even though it seemed easy to get in contact with Sara, he had not been able to talk to her yet. Laurel was the first one to.

"She is doing fine, but she misses us all of course. She told me she is coming back in two months to visit us shortly. So.. that's a good thing." Laurel said and Oliver nodded in agreement.

"Good to hear." He said.

They stood there in silence again, both not knowing what to say next. Laurel was pursing her lips and Oliver was just looking around at the messy room. Laurel noticed him looking around.

"I'm going to clean up this mess first thing tomorrow.. I feel kind of ashamed to, you know, show this room to people."

Oliver simply smiled at her. Glad that she had noticed it was time to change it up again.

Oliver sighed, "I better get going." He then said.

"_Okay."_ Laurel softly whispered in reply.

Oliver turned around and walked over to the door. But as soon as his hand found the door handle, he was stopped by Laurel calling out his name.

"Ollie."

Oliver slowly turned around to face Laurel. He didn't respond, but just looked at her, waiting for what was about to come next.

"I know why you broke up with me. I'm not your perfect fit, I have never been and I will never be." She quietly spoke.

"_Laurel-"_ Oliver slowly said, trying to stop her from talking any further, but he didn't know how else to stop her than by saying her name and Laurel made sure she wasn't going to be interrupted.

"No, let me talk." She firmly said. "I know I'm not your perfect fit because I know you longer than today. I know the way you look and act. I have seen the look on your face whenever you looked at me or Sara. The look of appreciation and adoration.. I know you love us both, but you have never loved us in the way we all believe true love is. I realized this at Korso's yesterday night. _No._ I actually think I realized this earlier, but I didn't want to admit that to myself. I really thought I was the one who made you happy and filled you with the love you needed, but I was wrong. I also thought that it was Sara for a long time, when she returned home, but that thought was wrong too.."

Laurel paused and looked at Oliver. She slightly squeezed her eyes because she couldn't tell if he understood where she was going. From the look on his face, she could tell he had no clue and his thoughts were totally blank at the moment.

"Ollie. _Yes,_ I've probably made you happy in the early days and _yes_ Sara may have made you happy too. But there is only one person who truly swept you off your feet and who's the true light in your life. You may not see it now and you may not see it soon, but I bet everybody can tell. The way you look at Felicity and how over-protective you become of her, the way you start smiling when she smiles. I have been _observing,_ Oliver. You deserve someone like her, she deserves someone like you. What the two of you have.. _that_ is true love. I'm not mad at you Oliver. Maybe a bit disappointed that we didn't work, but I had seen it coming."

Oliver clenched his teeth and looked away from Laurel.

"Oliver." She said on a sharp tone now. "Promise me one thing."

She reached for Oliver's arm and held onto it, he looked down at her firm grip on his arm.

"Don't let her go. Make sure she stays in your life because I can see that the two of you need each other. Make sure you're her world like she is yours. Don't lose this Oliver. And as you said before, just because we have broken up, doesn't mean I don't want to see you happy. You deserve true happiness. _You deserve true love."_

Laurel let go of Oliver's arm and softly smiled at him.

"I don't deserve her Laurel.. I really don't." Oliver quietly said, avoiding Laurel's eyes.

"Oliver, that's ridicules. Yesterday night at Korso's. Did you really think I didn't notice you staring at her the entire evening? You are hopelessly devoted to her. Even I could tell she isn't a perfect fit with the guy she was with, because as soon as the two of you are together, there is this very strong spark that is so rare but so beautiful.. and I totally missed that spark between her and the guy."

Laurel sighed before continuing.

"You have been through so much already. You deserve to be happy. And yes, I know you believe your happiness is the least important thing in this world, but your happiness is attached to her happiness and there is no denying."

Laurel moved onto her tiptoes and leaned in to give Oliver a friendly and soft kiss on the cheek. When she slowly pulled away she just stopped a few inches from his face. Her hand touched his cheek and she looked him in the eye before she quietly whispered to him.

"_You are an incredible guy, Oliver. I just wish you could see that too."_

* * *

**What did you think? Please review! Your thoughts are very important to me. And if you have any ideas for upcoming chapters, feel free to share!**

**Thank you all for sticking around! See you next time :)**


	15. Chapter 15

**So Arrow is already busy with filming season 3. Is anybody as excited as I am?! Like seriously, my excitement is killing me. I love how Stephen is so interactive on Facebook and keeps us updated as well as possible. And I'm stalking everybody's instagram for some really good pictures because I really need some new Arrow (cast) pictures. So yeah. My excitement is getting on my nerves, but I can deal with it. **

**Anyway. Chapter 15 is here! Hope you enjoy it :)**

* * *

Diggle threw the bow and Oliver casually caught it.

"What are you going to ask Grayson exactly?" Diggle asked as he watched Oliver put the bow around his shoulder. "I don't feel like you have anything to do with the guy."

"He had something to do with Tommy and Malcolm. Also, the Global Merlyn Group doesn't exist anymore and as you mentioned, it is quite odd for Grayson to still be here even though his work has disappeared right in front of him." Oliver replied as he put his mask on. "And why would he kill those two cops. He is rich, he can go anywhere he wants to, but he decided to stay here in Starling City. We have little information about him, but I need more. This city cannot deal with another criminal, so I have to deal with him."

"_We_ have to deal with him, Oliver. You are not in this alone. Don't forget that." Diggle said as soon as he noticed that Oliver used the I-vorm. "Why exactly didn't you want me to come along again?" Diggle asked as he remembered Oliver hadn't explained that yet.

"I need you here. You have to be my eyes and ears as.. Felicity isn't here to do that." Oliver explained as he looked at the computer systems surrounding them.

"Got it." Diggle said in agreement.

Diggle walked over to Felicity's chair, spun it around and sat down on it. It felt odd sitting in the chair, this really wasn't his chair to sit on, but it was actually also the only chair around, so he had to. As he positioned himself better, his hands examined the keyboard and the mouse Felicity used to use.

"What do you want me to do, Oliver?" He asked as he turned on the computer and logged into the system.

"Inform me whenever someone approaches Grayson and me." Oliver said as he walked away to the stairs. He stopped in front of the stairs to add a little something to Diggle's part of the job. "Also, can you put Felicity's face into Face Recognition and tell me when you have a hit or not."

Diggle spun around and nodded.

"Will do." He quietly said as he watched Oliver exiting the lair.

* * *

Oliver patiently waited as Lance's car arrived and was softly parked against the pavement. He could hear the door open and Lance appeared.

"He is in the back." Lance mentioned as he pointed to his car.

"Good." Oliver replied as he crossed his arms. "What did he say in the interrogation?"

Lance leaned against his car and sighed.

"Nothing much. I was hoping you can get something out of him. He was a real pain in the ass and he wasn't willing to answer any of our questions. He was stuck in the interrogation room for several hours until the interrogator gave up." Lance frowned a bit and rubbed his eyes with his knuckles. "That has never really happened before."

Oliver clenched his teeth as he looked at the backseat were Grayson was sitting.

"Lieutenant, thank you for your cooperation once again."

"Don't thank me. As long as you don't harm him too much, all be fine. We need him back alive." Lance said with a grin.

"Won't be a problem." Oliver slowly replied.

Lance pushed himself away from the car to open up the door, but he hesitated for a bit. Oliver saw the hesitation and wondered if Lance would ever fully trust him. Lance had every reason not to, but Oliver thought that by now he had shown how trust worthy he actually was.

Lieutenant Lance turned around to face Oliver again, or in his eyes, the Arrow.

"You know, I wonder.." He began, not quite sure whether or not to ask the question he was about to ask. However, after a second thought, he had to. "Are you ever going to reveal yourself to the world?"

Oliver slowly exhaled. He had not seen that question coming, although he knew how to answer it.

"No. I feel like I need to have my personal life and this life separated from each other to protect the people closest to me. And I'm not quite sure how the people in Starling City will react to my real identity."

"Oh, don't worry about the citizens. Despite the fact that in the beginning everybody actually disliked you, _included me,_ they all see you as the hero now." Lance said as he grinned, crossing his arms. Ever since he had shown the headquarters that working with the Arrow was a good thing, he had been promoted once again and praised by everybody at the office. There wasn't anyone left who said anything bad about the Arrow.

"Lieutenant. Nobody can be appreciated by everyone."

The Arrow had a point there though. It might seem like everybody at the office was fine with the Arrow, but that didn't mean there wasn't one lunatic running around in Starling City who would do anything to break the Arrow his bones. Like the one sitting in his car now.

"Right.." Lieutenant Lance said, confirming Oliver's statement. He said no word no more about the subject as he turned back around to his car to open the door and pull out Grayson.

"He's all yours. You get 10 minutes and then I'll be back." Lance now said on a very sharp tone. Because even though working with the Arrow seemed like a good thing, it was against the law to just hand over a criminal like this to someone without informing the court.

Lance pushed Grayson toward the Arrow, what made Grayson stumble and fall on the ground. Grayson's hands were cuffed behind his back, so he wasn't able to break his fall. He groaned in pain as he hit the pavement a bit too hard. Lance just grinned and got into his car. He glanced at the Arrow one more time before driving off.

Grayson spit on the ground as he tried to get up. He positioned himself on his knees and looked up at the Arrow.

"What do you want from me?" He said with an evil smile to Oliver.

Oliver looked at him in disgust. This man was truly mentally ill. Anybody else would have been frightened sitting in front of the Arrow.

"Why are you in Starling City?" He immediately asked, to figure out if Grayson was willing to answer his questions.

"Why are _you_ in Starling City." Grayson said as he spit once again. "You defeated the bad guys. The masked men, haven't you? Expect for yourself. You're still standing on solid ground."

Just as Oliver had predicted, Grayson wasn't willing to answer normally.

"If you aren't going to answer me I'm going to shoot an arrow through your leg." Oliver said sharply.

Grayson swallowed and tried standing up, but he was pushed down again by Oliver.

"Fine." He said, after a couple of seconds. "I'm just casually living my life as any other human being walking around here in Starling City. Do you mind?"

Oliver was getting real tired of this. What was it with people lately to be such a pain in the ass. First Waylon and now this guy and it didn't seem to get any better anytime soon.

"As casually as killing two cops?" Oliver said briefly.

"I didn't kill those cops. I already told the interrogator whom I pissed off big time. You aren't going to catch me for that."

Oliver started to notice that he wasn't going to get any information out of Grayson about the two cops either, so he decided to switch subjects.

"Malcom Merlyn. You probably know him. Don't you?"

Grayson looked hesitantly but answered.

"Yeah. I do. Why is he involved?"

Oliver simply ignored the question.

"I know you worked with him. In the Global Merlyn Group. It must have been hard for you to lose your job from one day onto the other."

"I shed no tear." Grayson snapped back, not willing to be intimidated by the Arrow.

"There is a reason you stayed here in Starling City and I believe it has something to do with the Global Merlyn Group. You probably thought you could be a huge part in the Group, but when the Group ended, there was nothing left for you."

"How do you know so well that I wanted to be a huge part in the Merlyn Global Group, huh?"

"That's normally what men want. Power. The Merlyn Global Group was one of the best organizations in this city."

Oliver paused and held his head a little higher, overpowering Grayson.

"You're _good."_ Grayson reacted. "I only thought you could win battles through fights, but you're good in thinking too." He said with sarcasm. "But yes. I did join the Merlyn Global Group to earn my money as well as possible. I wanted to bring that man down and rise to the top, to be the most powerful man in this city. But of course, Malcolm had several other plans with the business in which his son would be a huge part."

"_Tommy."_ Oliver quietly said.

"Tommy. Never have I hated someone as much as I hated him. However, I wasn't going to let him get in between me and my power. I had several plans made up too, until.. Merlyn of course had decided to die and Tommy of course had to die too._ Poof_. Gone was the Group. Gone was my opportunity to power."

Grayson started laughing hysterically and rolled his eyes.

"So you stayed in Starling City to do what? Start a new group? Nobody even knows you.. Grayson." Oliver said angrily.

"I had learned a lot from Merlyn. I had learned how to run a good business. I wasn't going to give up on that knowledge. So I stayed in Starling City to come up with my own ideas. To create my own power."

"It's been taking you a long time then."

"I don't care. I'm almost there."

"Almost is nothing Grayson and you know it."

"You don't know half of it. You would_ kill _me right now if you knew what I was up to. But you don't know anything.. so I shouldn't be worried." Grayson grinned and looked Oliver straight in the eyes.

Oliver felt like Grayson could see who he was, but if he had seen, he would have already mentioned it because this guy was kind of straight to the point when he started bragging and talking.

"I have no reason in killing you."

"Yet." Grayson said, to end Oliver's statement with.

"_Lieutenant Lance is one minute away from you Oliver." _It was Diggle who spoke. Oliver had forgotten that Diggle was actually present the entire time too.

"What is it you're hiding Grayson." Oliver said, stepping closer to Grayson. Grayson didn't move an inch and cocked his head and kept on grinning.

"_It..? I don't know." _He whispered softly back.

Oliver looked to his right when he saw Lance's car appear. He took a step back again to leave some more space between him and Grayson, but he never stopped looking at the jerk sitting on the ground, hand cuffed.

Lieutenant Lance parked his car and got out. He immediately grabbed Grayson's arms and pulled him up.

"What did you get out of him?" Lance asked to Oliver.

"You should take a polygraph with him. Only that way you'll get your answers Lieutenant."

Grayson started laughing again.

"YES! I will take that polygraph so I can prove to you that I have nothing to do with the two cops whatsoever."

Lance pushed him hard to shut him up and it worked.

"We will. I will contact you for the results. Did you get your information?" Lieutenant Lance asked.

Oliver nodded yes in response.

"Okay." Lance said quietly as he started pulling Grayson into the direction of the car. "We better go. I want him to rot in his cell as long as possible."

Oliver grinned and quietly watched them leave. He also waited until the car was around the corner.

"_Well that was.."_ But Diggle couldn't come up with the perfect word to describe the scene that had taken place just moments ago.

Oliver pressed his finger against his earpiece to listen what Diggle had to say more.

"_He is hiding something, Oliver. There's no denying."_

"I noticed that too. But we will have to wait for the polygraph results."

"_And Oliver.. I put Felicity into Face Recognition. But I got no hit whatsoever."_

Oliver slowly closed his eyes as soon as Diggle had said "no hit." He had expected it though, but it was hard getting the confirmation. How was it possible for someone to disappear that easily though. It was like she had disappeared from earth.

Oliver opened his eyes again, sighed and rubbed his forehead.

"I get it. On my way."

And the Arrow started running.

* * *

**Thank you for sticking around! Reviews are really appreciated and follows and favorites too of course. However, I really like hearing your opinions on the story and your ideas on any further chapters. :) So. Click the review button and start reviewing!  
**


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16 already. Time flies by. Thank you all for still sticking around. Updating this from the poolside. I actually wrote this chapter a week ago, so I could update this for you. I'm so nice :P**

**CW owns it all.**

* * *

"There we are again." The man said with a huge grin on his face. He watched as the policemen attached his body to the lie detector. "I have nothing to hide and before you know it, I'm out of this building."

"You have something to hide Grayson and we all know it. We just need the polygraph to find out what it is you're hiding." Lieutenant Lance said as he placed his hands on the table in front of him and looked down at Grayson who still hadn't stopped grinning ever since he had had his interaction with the Arrow. Lance wondered what it was the Arrow had to discuss with this man, but he didn't want to get involved in that business. Lance shook his head to get rid of the thoughts that were floating through his mind.

"We're done." A police officer said nodding towards Grayson and his body attached to the detector.

"Thank you, you can leave." Lance said as he sat down on the chair next to his colleague whom was going to take the polygraph from Grayson.

The police officers nodded their heads in understanding and left the room.

Grayson's eyes followed the policemen leaving the room until his eyes crossed Lance's and he started grinning again, showing off his teeth.

"Arnold you can start." Lance said to his colleague, but not looking away from Grayson.

Arnold started the machine and looked at the piece of paper with the questions on it.

"Is your real name Grayson Sanchez?" - "Yes."

Arnold nodded. He was speaking the truth.

"Do you live in Starling City?" – "Yes."

Arnold nodded again.

"Are you originally from Starling City?" "No."

Again, Arnold nodded.

"Were you in Starling City the night two police offers were brutally killed?" – "Yes."

Arnold squeezed his eyes a bit, but after a split second the lie detector told him Grayson was speaking the truth. Lance looked over at Arnold and waited until he saw a slight nod coming from his colleague.

"Did you kill the two police officers that night."

Grayson started grinning.

"No."

Arnold nodded again and Lance clenched his teeth. He didn't like where this was going.

"Did you have anything to do with the death of the two police officers?"

Grayson grinned again and softly said "No."

The detector was giving no sign whatsoever.

"I have to ask you again and I need you to give a clear answer. _Did_ you have anything to do with the death of the two police officers?"

"No." Grayson now said louder.

Arnold sighed and nodded.

"Did you shoot at a surveillance camera to block any view whatsoever?" "No."

Arnold nodded his head again and looked at Lance. Lance knew Arnold didn't have to mention anything. He knew what this meant. Grayson truly had nothing to do with the shooting that night. However, he still didn't understand the connection with the hoodie.

Lance grabbed the piece of paper with the questions and circled the questions Arnold had to ask now. He gave the paper back and Arnold looked at the questions and inhaled deeply.

"Did you buy a hoodie one week ago." "Yes."

Arnold nodded.

"Were you wearing the hoodie the night the two police officers were killed?"

"No." Grayson immediately said.

Lance saw Arnold squeezing his eyes a bit and shaking his head no. Grayson wasn't telling the truth now.

Lance stood up and walked over to Grayson to kneel down in front of him.

"You aren't telling the truth Grayson. You were wearing the hoodie the night the two police officers were killed and you and I both know the one who killed the police officers was wearing _your _hoodie."

Lance stood up again. "Did you give your hoodie to another man?" he asked.

"No." Grayson said.

Lance looked over his shoulder and saw Arnold nodding. Now he was telling the truth again. Lance rubbed his forehead and walked around Grayson's chair.

"Did you lose –" But Lance couldn't continue his question as he was interrupted.

"You know _lieutenant_ I could just tell you what happened.. that's probably much easier. I didn't give my hoodie to someone else, I didn't lose it, in fact, I simply threw it away. In the _trash_."

Lance exhaled slowly.

"Did you throw the hoodie in the trash?" He quietly asked.

"Yes." Grayson answered with a deep voice.

Lance looked up to Arnold and flinched when he saw Arnold nodding his head yes.

Grayson was telling the truth again.

* * *

"_I hate to share this with you, but Grayson had nothing to do with the shooting. He wasn't involved anyhow. The hoodie he had bought at that local store.. he had thrown it in the trash. The real person who killed my men probably got it out of the trash and is still happily running around in Starling City."_

Diggle and Oliver listened carefully as Lance explained what the result was from the polygraph.

"_Grayson is still hiding something, because he doesn't seem like the good guy he wants us to believe he is. He still hid in his basement and he also lied about wearing the hoodie that particular night. However, we couldn't keep him here. We had no decent evidence against him, especially not after the polygraph.."_

"I understand lieutenant." Oliver replied as he sighed and looked at Diggle who looked back at him with the same disbelieve written all over his face.

"_It might be better if the department continues on working on this case. I also don't know what unfinished business you have with Grayson but I believe he is back in his own house, so if you happen to search for him, know where to look. And if you find anything that can make him go to jail. Don't hesitate but tell me. I want that son of a bitch locked up behind bars."_

Oliver didn't say anything but grinned. He could hear Lance sigh on the other side of the line before hanging up.

"You want to go to Grayson's house, don't you?" Diggle asked as he observed Oliver and crossed his arms.

"Yes. Unless we find new leads to Felicity's whereabouts, but I doubt we do." Oliver answered slowly as he looked around the lair. The lair that still felt empty to him without Felicity in it.

"It might be better if we go to Grayson's house indeed. There is absolutely nothing else we can do for Felicity now, as much as I hate it. I still have her running in Face Recognition and if we get a hit, the computer system will send it to our phones."

Oliver looked at Diggle with appreciation. He was still glad to have such a good friend and partner by his side.

"Oliver, I also think we should visit Waylon again."

Now Oliver started frowning. He was the last person to hear that from.

Diggle couldn't help but laugh a little.

"I know what you're thinking. I wanted him to be left alone.. but I now also believe he has something to hide. Something that brings us closer to Felicity. He knows something and I'm eager to know what it is."

"Okay.." Oliver let out with a bit hesitation, which Diggle noticed.

"Let me explain it this way. Waylon bought a hoodie, threw it in the trash, someone else got it out of the trash and Waylon ended up with it. That hoodie had _the_ field trip of its lifetime. A bit too much coincidence is stuck in this story plot."

Oliver took a deep breath. He knew Diggle was right but he sure as hell didn't want to see Waylon again, not after he almost killed the guy. Something he had promised to never do anymore. The killing.

Diggle noticed the slight hesitation again as Oliver frowned but he decided to ignore it. He knew Oliver woulnd't kill Waylon so there was no need in reminding him he wouldn't. After all, he was there to confront Waylon too, so if things were going out of hand, he was able to get in between.

"Grayson first.. then Waylon." Oliver suggested after a moment.

* * *

They went straigt to Grayson's house. All the curtains were closed and the plants and flowers on the lawn were slowly dying. There was a car in the drive, so Grayson was probably home. After observing the house for a couple of minutes, a curtain on the left slowly moved, revealing Grayson checking his neighborhood. Oliver and Diggle pressed themselves against their car seats, not wanting to be noticed.

After Grayson seemed satisfied with his neighborhood, he shoved the curtains back to its place. He twirled his car keys in his hands and took his jacket from the coat rack. He zipped his jacket as he also looked at himself in the mirror. As he seemed pleased with himself he walked over to his front door and opened it. Clouds made room for the sun and Grayson shut his eyes for a second to let the light in. He then turned his back to the sun and closed the door with a loud thud, locking the three locks after. He stepped toward his car, but before he got in, he checked his surroundings one more time, finding nothing odd.

Oliver and Diggle pressed themselves in their seats once again as Grayson looked around. They both held onto their breath. When Grayson got into his car they exhaled and Diggle firmly grabbed the steering wheel, tapping it with his fingers. They watched Grayson drive away and Diggle started the engine. When Grayson seemed to be on a right distance from them they slowly drove off also, following the big black car Sanchez was driving in.

After fifteen minutes of following, Grayson took a turn to the right, leaving the main road for a tiny muddy road that had a building placed at the end. Oliver directed Diggle to stop at the beginning of this road, so it wouldn't be obvious they were following Grayson. Diggle parked the car in a bush and they got out. They walked down the path, observing the building and Grayson's car that was parked in front of it.

"What is this place?" Diggle asked. "I haven't seen it before.."

"Neither have I." Oliver responded.

When they arrived at the building it seemed to be an old but huge storage. They immediately walked up to the entrance that was slightly opened. Oliver placed his hand on the door to open it a bit more, enough for them to go through and to not make the door creak as much as it already was doing.

Diggle stepped in, taking his gun out of his pocket for protection. Oliver followed and looked around. The building was dusty and it seemed like a bomb had exploded. Walls were broken, the floor had cracks all over the place and the smell was unbearable. It had scents of dead mice and something else, something Oliver couldn't really place.

They saw a light coming from the end of the hall. They walked toward it and took a peek through a hole that was in the door. Diggle nor Oliver could believe what they saw.

Dozens of plants were planted in the big room.

"Lance was right.. Grayson isn't the good guy he wants us to believe he is."

Oliver sighed and kicked in the door. He looked around but there seemed to be no one else but them. They walked over to the plants and noticed they were hemp plants and poppies. The elements for Cannabis and Cocaïne.

Diggle glanced around the room and saw a few boxes standing against a wall. He walked up to them and opened one. There were bottles placed in the boxes. Diggle picked up a bottle and looked at the word written on it.

"_gamma-butyrolacton."_ He whispered quietly. Diggle's eyes widened as he realized what he was holding.

"Oliver." He slowly said.

"Yes?" Oliver responded as he walked across the room still looking at all the plants.

"These boxes contain gamma-butyrolacton. The most important element for gamma-hydroxy-butyrat… GHB."

Oliver stopped walking and turned around to look at Diggle. He realized the same thing Diggle had realized moments ago.

"That's what we found at Felicity's.."

Diggle nodded to confirm Oliver's thoughts.

He ran.

Oliver ran as hard as possible.

Through the doors he had kicked in.

Through the long hall.

Through the door that creaked as hell.

Until the front of the building.

To see an empty place where Grayson's car was first parked.

"Damn it." He shouted, looking around for anyone else.

He heard Diggle running too, who stopped next to him moments later.

"Damn it." He also said as soon as he saw Grayson's car was gone.

"You were right Digg." Oliver slowly said. "It's not normal for a hoodie to take the field trip of its lifetime."

* * *

**Oh.. Grayson? What?! Bad guy after all? What do you think his part is in this all?  
Please review, favorite, follow. It's really appreciated :)**


	17. Chapter 17

**Wi-fi out here is annoying me so much, I keep losing it every single minute. Updating isn't easy because of it, so sorry for the delays. Thank you for those who review, I really appreciate it, because it stimulates me to write more ! Chapter 17 is here and also Felicity, enjoy ;) **

**REVIEW PLEASE! **

* * *

"HELLO?! Is anybody out there?! I'm thirsty!" Felicity yelled as she kicked and slammed the door. She had been calling for someone for what felt like an hour, but nobody seemed to give a crap about her. She slammed her fists against the door again, but still no reaction from the other side was heard.

Felicity sighed and turned around, letting herself lean against the wooden door to slide down and sit on the floor. She wrapped her arms around her legs and placed her chin on her knees. Her headache was gone and her body was finally fully working again. Though she still sort of noticed the blood loss she had gone through, her body was keeping it together. Felicity's eyes slowly looked down at her hands. They were covered up with dried blood. Mouth blood. Her mouth was still feeling a bit sore from the hit that the man had given her. For a long while, her mouth wouldn't even stop bleeding. She had to wipe her lips and chin every now and then to keep herself a bit cleaner. Luckily for her, the bleeding finally had stopped and only dried up blood was left for her to look at.

After the man had been in the room though, she had stared at the glass of water he had left her. She hadn't trusted the liquid for a very long time, afraid that it was filled with drugs again. Yes. She had figured out that she was drugged at her own house. That was the only simple explanation she could give herself for passing out and she wasn't planning on passing out again only to wake up in yet another unknown room. Now she was happy that she drank it, because it was warm in the room and the water had helped her cool down and get rid of her headache.

However, one glass of water wasn't going to help her from starvation or passing out. Nobody else besides the man had paid her a visit to provide her with water or food and she was kind of annoyed with that. Not surprised, only annoyed.

She actually wasn't only trying to get someone's attention for water. In the time she had been stuck in the room, she had come up with a plan. Her escape plan. Her plan was to make someone open up the door so she could, hopefully, escape the room and building she was in. Therefore, she was kicking and screaming to get someone's attention, but it hadn't brought her really far yet. No one reacted on her.

Felicity rubbed her eyes as she sighed. She had to come up with another plan to get her out of this building. She wondered what kind of building it was though. Maybe it was only a shed, a house, a thirty store high building, but she didn't know and couldn't tell.

Escaping the room was one thing, but escaping the building was going to be another big thing. If it was a large building she wouldn't even know which direction to run to.. left or right? Or straight and never take a turn. Unspoken questions with unspoken answered filled her thoughts and it made her crazy.

She felt vulnerable without any devices near her. She was on her weakest now and she hated it.

All of a sudden she heard locks being opened. Felicity immediately stood up and backed away from the door, her hands positioned in front of her, ready to hit and run. When the last lock was heard, there was a silence for a moment. Felicity held onto her breath as she nervously waited for the door to open. The door started creaking and a young lady appeared. The lady had black silky hair and freckles on her face. She remembered this young woman. Felicity looked carefully at her until she realized it was the woman from the elevator she had been awkwardly staring at.

"Don't look surprised." She said as she looked Felicity in the eye.

"I have seen you before.. at QC.," Felicity started. "Were you.. spying on me?!" She now said angrily.

The woman started laughing.

"Maybe." She responded. "But don't think you're _that _important, because you aren't" She now snapped.

Felicity quivered. She didn't care what this lady had to tell her, this was her chance to escape.

Without any further thinking, Felicity groaned and ran up to the woman. Fists in front of her, ready to hit. The young lady surprised her though. She immediately grabbed Felicity's right arm and swung her around, dispositioning it. Felicity yelped in pain and bent down a bit. The young lady moved closer to Felicity and whispered in her ear.

"My name is Paige. Nice meeting you to."

Felicity bit her lip harder to prevent herself from yelping more. However, the position she was in now truly hurt her and misplaced her and she couldn't control the pain anyhow. Felicity tried pushing Paige away from her by using her back, but Paige was stronger.

"You're too weak Felicity. Just give in already." Paige said with a laugh. She pushed Felicity away from her. Felicity stumbled but kept standing on her feet.

"Never." Felicity harshly said.

She turned to Paige and ran up to her, ready to attack her again. This time she was able to grab her by the hair and yank it down. Paige screamed from the top of her lungs as she held her hands onto her hair. Felicity had the full power now and she pulled even harder before kicking Paige in the stomach. Not only did Paige flinch, but also Felicity. She never liked hurting people and this was yet another occasion she didn't like.

"_Sorry."_ She mumbled to Paige, before pushing her entirely to the ground. Paige's head hit the floor. The young freckled woman was now lying still on the ground without making any sound. Felicity looked down in utter shock, afraid that she had killed the woman. However, she couldn't think about that now, the door was open to her and all she had to do know was run. Felicity glanced down at Paige one last time before she swung the door open and started running.

Felicity was breathing heavily. Her heart was pounding like crazy because of the nerves and excitement that was running through her body. She ran across the small hallway she was in now and saw another wooden door. The only door besides the door she had just come through.

Felicity slipped as she tried stopping herself from crashing into the door. She stumbled back up and her hands flew to the door handle to yank it. It wasn't moving and Felicity took a little step back to observe the wooden door. It had at least eight locks, but they were able to be opened without a key.

She moved onto her tip toes to open up the first lock. After wringing it a couple of times, the lock opened and she moved onto the next one. The same happened with the second, third, fourth and fifth lock. Felicity grinned as she tried moving the sixth lock, however, this one was harder to unlock. She yanked and hit it, but it was too strong. Then she heard someone growling in the back. Felicity slowly turned around to see Paige carefully standing up.

"Oh no.." Felicity let out in shock. She turned back to the door and yanked the lock again. Luckily, it unlocked. She sighed in relieve. She slightly looked over her shoulder to see Paige slowly stumbling towards her.

"Focus Felicity, focus." She started to say to herself.

The seventh lock opened as easily as the first lock had opened and now there was only one lock left. Felicity bit her lip as she yanked the last lock. She could feel Paige approaching and coming closer as the seconds flew by.

Suddenly she heard a click and Felicity's heart stopped beating for a split second.

_The door was open_.

She immediately pushed the door to open and then stepped out of the hallway to turn around after.

"My name is Felicity Smoak.. Nice meeting you." She said with a grin, before slamming the door shut in front of Paige.

She could hear Paige screaming, but she was probably out of strength because she wasn't trying to open the door too.

Felicity let out a loud sigh, but kept pushing the door, afraid that any moment, Paige would get her strength back and yank the door open. After what seemed like a couple of minutes, Felicity pushed herself away from the door with certainty. She shoved some hair out of her face and moved her shoulders.

She took a couple of steps back, but still kept her eyes at the door. After continues steps she decided to turn around and let the door and Paige to what it was.

However, when Felicity turned around she bumped into a muscular person, all dressed in black. The person grabbed her by the shoulders and held onto her tight. She noticed it was the same man whom had hit her in the face.

"Where do you think you're going?!" He said with his robotic voice.

Felicity had lost it. She couldn't move or breathe normally. She was paralyzed and surprised. She let the man hold onto her shoulders even though it hurt.

"WELL?!" He now yelled in her face. Felicity closed her eyes and inhaled deeply before answering.

"Well…" she hesitantly began, "I was just.. you know.. I really had to go to the bathroom and.." but she stopped. That was the worst excuse ever and even she couldn't ramble on.

The man groaned and let go of her shoulders, only to grab her arms and pull her back to the direction she had just come from. He opened the door with the several locks and pulled her through it, with Felicity stumbling along. Paige was sitting against the wall, still trying to control her breathing.

_Did I do that to her? _

Felicity thought to herself as she couldn't keep her eyes off Paige. Paige only looked back in disgust but with a grin as she saw Felicity had definitely lost the battle.

After a long way of pulling, they arrived at the wooden door again and this time the man didn't pull, but pushed Felicity back into the room as hard as possible. She fell down with a loud thud, but immediately stood up to show she wasn't as vulnerable as everybody thought she was. She crossed her arms and held her chin up a bit to prevent her from losing it again.

"Guess you should get a better security system." She mumbled at the man. He didn't respond to it but stayed still.

Felicity bit her lip as she felt slightly intimidated again. It seemed like the man was building up all his strength, to let it all out on Felicity. Nevertheless, the last thing she wanted from him was another slap in the face, because that truly did hurt.

She had gained even more respect for Oliver and Diggle now. To even think about how many punches they had suffered from already.. that was remarkable. But she couldn't tell them how much respect she had for them, because they weren't here with her and she wondered how long it would take for them to find her.. _if_ they were searching for her of course.

Felicity still had her arms crossed and he was still standing strangely still, until he moved a little and shook his head.

"I'll be back." He said with hate noticeable in his voice.

She closed her eyes as he slammed the door shot, leaving her alone again. Then she released all the breath she had been holding onto the entire time. She placed her hands on her face and breathed deeply, rethinking everything what had happened just then.

_I'll be back._

She repeated in her head.

And no way she'd be excited for that.

* * *

**Woah. Fierce Felicity up there, too bad it didn't turn out well.. hope you liked this chapter! Don't forget to review because it really keeps me stimulated :) And as for updating, I am trying my best, but the wi-fi is crappy bc I'm on vacay!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Don't tell me I'm the only one freaking out over the new (extended) season 3 trailer (episode 1). I'm literally freaking out. I knew Oliver and Felicity were going on a date, but to really see Oliver asking Felicity to dinner made me scream out of excitement. I know, I know, they're just characters.. but still! However, to see a bloodied and unconcious (?) Felicity (in her date dress) and Oliver looking down like he's losing his world, makes me wanna slap myself. Just when you thought Olicity is doing great.. Felicity is likely to be dying.**

**Nevertheless, Stephen did tell in an interview that Felicity will be the only girl to Oliver this season. (Screaming again!) **

**Oh. And Diggle and Oliver though. Can't wait for that fight between the two strong men we all adore.**

**I'll quit talking about the trailer now! **

**Please review though and not only about the fanfic but let me know what YOUR thoughts are on season 3/the trailer. Excited to read your opinion!**

**OCTOBER IS SO FAR AWAY.**

**CW owns it all!**

* * *

Diggle opened the door to the lair and Oliver locked it behind them. They walked down the stairs and Oliver turned on the lights. The entire ride from the building to the lair had been a quiet one, neither of the men had talked or mentioned anything about the hemp plants, poppies or gamma-butyrolacton.

Although both were sharing the same concern about the gamma-butyrolacton. They knew that was the most important element for GHB, the drug that was possibly used for drugging Felicity, and it was no good news finding that in a building possibly owned by Grayson.

They had followed Grayson up to the building, but after discovering the gamma-butyrolacton, he was no where to be found, again.

Now they were back in the lair. They had to come up with a new plan on finding Grayson and getting new answers to Felicity's whereabouts.

"I think Grayson and Waylon have something in common. "

It was Oliver who spoke. He leaned against the desk and crossed his arms, waiting for a response from Diggle.

"Felicity." Diggle replied as he glanced up to Oliver.

Oliver nodded.

"Yes. I believe they have Felicity in common, stupid for them to forget we have her in common too. I certainly don't know what they want from her.."

"But they won't get it." Diggle said as he ended Oliver's sentence.

"Exactly.."

Oliver pushed himself away from the desk and walked over to the computer. He waited a split second for the computer to fully work before typing Waylon's name and address into the system. A phone number popped up. Diggle immediately took his phone out of his pocket and dialed the number. As soon as it was calling, Diggle put it on speaker and Oliver turned his voice into a voice Waylon would recognize anywhere.

"Hello?"

It was Waylon.

"You thought just because I didn't kill you last time, I would leave you alone?" Oliver said immediately.

"N-no."

Strange enough, Waylon's voice was sounding shaky and Diggle frowned at the phone.

"I can get inside your house anytime I want, extra security systems wouldn't work. Once I know a way in, I always get in."

"What do you want fro-"

"I want you to tell me where Felicity Smoak is. You were the last one she was seen with and don't deny you know her."

Silence.

"Don't think of hanging up on me. I know where to find you."

"I-I can't help you."

"Is there anything you'd want in return?"

Oliver had to play it differently. If Waylon wasn't going to give in now, they better start negotiating. In the mean time, Diggle had been tracking the phone number and could tell that Waylon was home, but the small dot that resembled Waylon was moving fast. Diggle poked Oliver as he pointed at the dot.

"Are you going somewhere Waylon? You can't outrun me. I'm open for negotia-"

Oliver was interrupted by an out-of-breath Waylon.

"I can't help you, because he _will _kill me. I'm not risking my life for anyone."

"Who is he?!" Oliver groaned into the phone, but Waylon hung up.

"We have to follow him." Oliver said as he jumped up and started towards the door. Diggle send the same data from the computer to his phone so they could track Waylon without the use of the computer. Diggle got up also and followd Oliver.

They ran up the stairs, through Verdant, to the parking lot.

"He's heading west." Diggle mentioned as they raced to the car and hopped in. Oliver hit the gas and drove off. While Diggle was giving the information on Wayon, Oliver kept on driving as fast as he possibly could, not wanting to lose anymore time.

After a moment, Diggle looked up from his phone and his eyes were searching for something on the road.

"He is supposed to be.." Diggle's finger was about to point at a direction, but he lowered his hand again to scratch his forehead. His gaze met his phone.

"Oliver. We've lost him. The signal is gone. I think he got rid of his phone." Diggle said as he tried getting the connection back up, but the dot wasn't returning onto the screen. "Last time I saw the dot was right there, at the bus stop." Now Diggle was pointing, making sure Oliver would know exactly what bus stop.

Oliver hit the brakes before he passed the bus stop. Diggle jumped out of the car and looked around. He silently walked up to the trash can that was at the bus stop and then looked inside of it. A phone lay on top of the trash. Diggle grabbed the phone out of the trash and carefully looked at it. It was missing its simcard. Diggle peeked in the can again and saw the simcard. He fished it out of the trash also and walked back to the car.

"Waylon's phone?"

"Waylon's phone." Diggle replied as he sat down and placed the simcard back into the phone.

Oliver checked the rearview mirrors, looking for a sign of anyone or anything familiar, but Waylon was probably long gone and he wouldn't be stupid enough to leave more behind than his phone.

"Guess whom Waylon has contacted right after his phone call with us?" Diggle said as he showed the contact list to Oliver.

"Grayson Sanchez.." Oliver growled in irritation. "First time?" He asked then.

"No. They have called several times. They are definitely working together whatsoever." Diggle replied as he scrolled through the list of several phone calls.

"Call Grayson's number." Oliver said simply. Diggle did as what was told.

Diggle carefully placed the phone against his ear and lowered his voice. "I hear nothing.. Or Grayson is out of battery or Waylon told him to get a new number." Diggle waited for some extra more minutes until coming to the conclusion no one was going to pick up. He put the phone back down and looked at Oliver.

"Text Lance to go on a search for Waylon, tell him Felicity has been kidnapped. Also give him the address of the drugs and plants, just fill him in on everything." Oliver quietly said as he squeezed the steering wheel. Diggle started typing the text and hit send as soon as he was satisfied with it.

* * *

He carefully opened the door and peeked inside the grand hall that was empty, to his relief. He slipped inside and closed the door quietly behind him. He was breathing heavely and the anxiety was killing him, but he had to deal with it. If someone caught him, that someone would actually kill him. He took a couple of steps to the first door on his right. The door had a small window in the middle so he could look into the room. Actually, so he could look into the lab.

He saw Paige in the lab, stitching herself up. She had a scar on her forehead and several bruises on her face. He had no idea what had happened to her or who had done that to her, but he couldn't contain a straight face. He had never liked Paige, so seeing her bruised up like this only made him smile.

He dug when she turned her face to the window, but she didn't seem to notice that someone was on the other side of the door, therefore she turned away again. He placed himself on his knees and crawled away from the door to the end of the hall where a big wooden door was located. He pulled himself up by the help of the handle and yanked it after. The door wasn't locked, which was odd, but he wasn't going to question it right now. He ran down the smaller hall and noticed that the door at the end of this hall was out of its locks too. Even more odd, considering this door had a bit too many locks. However, he opened the door and walked through it. He saw the last door in front of him, a sound from behind made him run again. While running he pulled the key of the door out of his pocket and held it in front of him. Ready to open up.

"Whose there?!"

A female voice from the other side was heard and he knew exactly who it was.

He didn't respond because he wanted to make as little sound as possible. When he arrived at the door he unlocked the first two locks and eventually opened the biggest lock with the key he had been holding. When he turned the key the door flew open, revealing Felicity Smoak. Her face was also bruised up, like Paige's face was, and her lip was swollen. Her clothes were ripped and she had scars all over her body. Felicity stood with her hands in front of her, ready to hit and run, until realization seemed to hit her.

"Waylon..?" She slowly said as she recognized the person standing before her. She lowered her hands again until she remembered where she was and she pulled a face

"_You _did this to me?" She said angrily as she highered her hands again and waited for him to move closer.

"I can explain-"

"Explain?!" She was becoming furious right now. "I trusted you and you drugged me and dragged me all the way to this very big empty and dark room."

He swallowed and tried to hush her but she wasn't willing to stay quiet.

"Why did you even hit me? What is wrong with you?!" She said as she pointed at her cheek.

_Hit? _This didn't occur to him, but he knew exactly who had hit her.

"Felicity. I never hit you. You have to believe me. This is the first time I see you here, in this place."

"What is this place exactly?" She now said, throwing her hands in the air, but keeping her eyes on him.

"All that, I can explain later, but we really have to go, right now."

"I'm not going anyhere with you, Waylon." She snapped, slowly backing away from him.

"Trust me. I'm not taking you anywhere else, you're escaping with my help."

Felicity frowned and swallowed the words she first wanted to say. Waylon looked at her, anxiety written all over his face.

"I don't believe you.. what changed your mind?" She slowly said, moving nervously from one feet onto the other.

"The Arrow."

Felicity froze when he said that.

"What's with the Arrow?" She said, lowering her voice.

"Apparently, he and his sidekick do give a crap about you. They have been on my nerves for a while now. Even threatened to kill me if something happened to you. If I help you escape, they will hopefully leave me alone and I can disappear. But you _really _need to come with me if you want to get the hell out of here."

Felicity's stared at him. Was he speaking the truth? Were Oliver and Diggle aware of the fact that she had gone missing? She had to admit this might be her only chance out. Even if this was a trap, she could still flee, as long as she got out of this room.

Apparently, this intervention was taking too long. Waylon grabbed Felicity by her arm and pulled her along. Nevertheless, Felicity was resisting and pulled her arm back.

"I can walk myself." She said in a harsh tone of voice.

"Walk? Run." Waylon responded and he ran off. Felicity immediately ran after him, keeping some distance in case he would suddenly stop and she didn't want to bump into him.

They ran through the long hall, through the door with the several locks and eventually ended up in the grand hall.

"What is this place?" Felicity said a bit too loud.

"Stay quiet please. I don't want anyone to hear us." He gave her a strict look and Felicity pursed her lips. He motioned her to stay at the side of the wall so he could peek through the window of the lab he had seen Paige in just moments ago. Felicity walked up to the wall and leaned against it. Waylon slowly moved his face to look through the window, but immediately noticed no one was inside. The lights were off.

"_She's not inside." _He whispered as he slowly turned around to face Felicity again.

"No. I'm right here, Waylon. What the hell do you think you're doing?"

It was Paige. She was holding Felicity, one hand had a knife pressed against the blonde's throat and the other hand covered her mouh to prevent her from screaming. Felicity herself had her gaze focused on Waylon, eyes pleading for help.

"Stop biting my hand bitch, or I'll cut your throat and make you yelp in pain." Paige groaned in Felicity's ear.

Paige glanced up at Waylon again. "So?" She asked.

"I..I –" But he had no answer ready for her.

"Were you trying to help her escape? What are you? Against us now?" Paige snapped.

"No.. not against.. just..the Arrow.. he's.."

Paige grinned when she heard the Arrow was involved.

"The Arrow huh.." She said as she trailed the knife across Felicity's throat. Felicity closed her eyes and stayed still.

Waylon took a step closer to Paige and Felicity, but Paige noticed.

"One step closer and I'll stick the knife right through her skin, in a very important vein. I don't think you'd like that, because if she dies, the Arrow will kill you. Won't he?"

Waylon swalllowed but nodded.

"Yes. But if she stays here. He'll kill me too. I have no choice."

After saying his last words he threw himself to Paige. Paige slammed Felicity against the wall. Felicity hit her head and fell unconcious to the ground. Paige didn't notice Felicity going unconcious, but she focused on Waylon and kicked him in the stomach. Unbalanced, Waylon hit Paige in the face, the same spot Felicity had hit her. Paige yelped in pain and tasted the blood in her mouth. She spit some blood out, ran up to Waylon, knife in front of her, and scratched his arm. Waylon was able to grab her arm and he yanked her to the ground. Paige lay on her back and she looked up to Waylon.

"You're gonna drag her out of here and then what? Flee the country? You know he will hunt you down until the bitter end, right?" She said as she spit in his face.

Waylon kneeled down and placed his hand against her throat.

"I'm going somewhere he won't find me and then-"

But he couldn't continue his sentence. Paige was able to move her legs and wrap them around Waylon, rolling him onto the ground and herself on top of him. She hit him in the face and right after he firmly pushed her off of himself. He stumbled up, but so did she. His eyes found the knife on the ground. As fast as he possibly could, he grabbed the knife from the ground and stuck it in Paige's leg as soon as she ran by. She screamed in pain and held onto her leg. However, she managed to pull the knife out and stand up straight. She cocked her head and looked Waylon in the eye. She started walking slowly and steady. The bloodied knife in her hand, blood dripping on the floor.

Waylon looked at the door that was his only way out, he glanced at Felicity one more time, before realizing he couldn't safe her. As he started towards the door, he could hear Paige screaming some things to him. His head started to ache. Not due to the fact that Paige had truly hit him hard, but because of the fact he was leaving Felicity behind. Nevertheless, there was no possible way he could have gotten her out of the building without being killed himself.

He sighed and started running out of the building and away from the building, as fast and far as possible.

* * *

**That's it for now.**

**Don't forget to review AND to tell me your thoughts on season 3 and/or the trailer! Season 3 is going to be epic, I bet you on that.**

**Do note that I'm still on vacay and I'm posting this from my iPad. Wi-Fi sucks and updating is HARD. My apologies.**


	19. Chapter 19

**It's been too long! But, I'm back home, so uploading will go normally from now on, thank g'd! I happily read your reviews about, not only my fanfic, but also about the season 3 promo. The excitement is real and I'm loving it!**

**I absolutely love seeing behind the scene photos and tweets which shows that the cast and crew are filming. Especially Stephen and Paul tend to give us some updates. Stephen mostly with the photos and Paul with tweets. LOVING THAT. Although, I really need Emily to post some great Arrow related pictures on instagram. Selfies and stuff. You know, to keep my addiction alive.**

**I would really like to thank 'Andie' on twitter btw. Your tweet about Runaway, gosh, you should have seen me smile. THANK YOU. I read chapter one of Unthinkable, it's good ;)  
**

**One question to you guys: 65 days until the season premiere. What are you doing in the meantime to ease the anticipation, besides reading fanfics? And any fanfics your recommend? **

**Enjoy!**

**CW owns it all**

* * *

Oliver sipped his coffee as he walked out of the elevator toward his office. He could see that his employees were working hard for him. But even though everybody was working hard, they didn't forget to greet him as he walked by. Oliver simply nodded back with a faint smile, that was all he could offer them for now. With everything going on, he was unable to pull an act and play the happy Oliver Queen who's got his company back. His employees didn't seem to notice his odd behavior as they only greeted and continued on with their work immediately.

Oliver approached his office, but before he could enter his own he had to walk through Felicity's. The door to their offices was opened and he remembered he hadn't bothered closing it after his argument with Felicity. He slowly walked in, navigating her desk in the meantime. He noticed that the pile of paperwork, that Felicity had been busy with, was still placed on her desk. It hit him that the paperwork was for all the events he had to attend soon. Oliver sighed as he walked over to her desk. He put his coffee down and smoothly trailed his hand across the back of the chair. He then turned the chair and sat down. He bit his lip as he shoved the pile of paperwork to him. He grabbed the paper on top of the pile and read it. His first upcoming event was in two days, for a charity that was going to fix the damage at the south wing of the Starling City Hospital. A damage cost by the undertaking.

He was supposed to give a speech at the hospital, because Queen Consolidated was investing in the reparation, however, Felicity had promised him to make the speech and he was convinced she hadn't finished it yet. He sighed and reached for his coffee again. Suddenly a pain lingered through Oliver's elbow. He flinched and clenched his teeth. Not only had he forgotten about the events, he had also forgotten about the fact that he had been shot and even though Diggle had fixed him up, his elbow was still hurting.

Oliver groaned as he remembered the fight in his apartment with an unknown guy. He still didn't know if the guy was dead or if he had been able to break his fall and flee the scene, but Oliver was convinced he was going to find out soon. The guy who had been in his apartment was involved with Felicity's kidnapping, that was something he was sure of.

He stretched his arm and rubbed his elbow, trying to ease the annoyance of the bullet scratch.

A scream.

Oliver glanced up immediately. Some of his employees were running around, others were laying on the ground. In the midst of the hall stood Waylon. Gun pointed at the ceiling. His gaze fixed on Oliver. Oliver slowly got up to stand up straight and show Waylon he got his full attention. He noticed the gun in Waylon's hand was shaking.. no, Waylon was shaking.

He didn't understand why Waylon would show up like this, show up at Queen Consolidated. Waylon couldn't really have anything against him, unless he finally connected the dots. Oliver figured that was it. Waylon knew he was the Arrow.

Slowly, the gun lowered and was now pointing at Oliver. Oliver simply raised his hands.

"Everybody, listen up. You are all going to exit this floor, this building, as slowly and carefully as possible. He is not going to hurt you."

Everyone turned around to look at Oliver who had spoken. They looked at him with concern written all over their faces. They were afraid to move, he knew that, but he also knew Waylon actually didn't want to hurt anyone else but 'the Arrow.'

"Now go." Oliver said softly.

At first nothing really happened, until a tall blonde man slowly stood up and made his way to the staircase. Waylon didn't move but kept his attention fully focused on Oliver. When the tall blonde man arrived at the door, he looked over his shoulder to glance around the room one more time, then he took a deep breath and ran out.

Silence followed after the man had left. Nevertheless, that silence disappeared real quick after the gun went off. Oliver closed his eyes firmly at the sound of the gun. After a split second he had noticed that Waylon hadn't shot him anyhow. He slowly opened his eyes and looked over his shoulder to see a bullet hole in the wall.

"NOW." Oliver yelled in determination.

His employees didn't hesitate anymore. Those on the ground stumbled up and the ones who were first standing entirely still were now running toward the exit doors. After a couple of seconds, almost everything was cleared out, only Waylon and Oliver were still present.

They stood there in silence for a while, until Waylon dropped his gun and it fell down with a loud thud.

"I'm sorry." He whispered.

Oliver frowned and lowered his arms.

"What are you doing here?" Oliver asked sharply.

"I know you're the Arrow, mr Queen."

There. It was out. Waylon had said it.

Yet, it didn't do anything with Oliver. Oliver stayed quiet and kept looking at Waylon. Of course he wanted to run over to the guy and pin him against the wall, but Waylon was here for a reason, a pretty good reason probably. Otherwise he wouldn't be standing here, risking his life.

Waylon swallowed when he got no reaction from Oliver whatsoever, he felt intimidated by the way the CEO of Queen Consolidated was standing there in front of him. Chin up, chest going up and down in a relaxing way.

"Not surprised?" Waylon said, trying to laugh it off. But he pursed his lips as Oliver gave no reaction yet again.

"Okay listen. I know-.. I know you want to probably shoot an arrow at me or kill me with your bare hands, but before you do, you really have to listen to me." He paused. Unsure if Oliver had understood. "An- Anyway.." he dug his nails in his hand palms as he continued. "You were right. I didn't really need the 50 bucks. I am a wealthy guy. I own a great house and I can do so many great investments. In fact, I could even invest in that charity you're going to the day after tomorrow. They will probably be-"

Oliver groaned. Waylon immediately stopped rambling.

"Right. What I was saying was.. I really didn't need the 50 bucks.. I actually never got it either. The hoodie wasn't given to me also.. In fact.. I killed those two cops myself. So there was no other guy who shot the cops and handed me the hoodie and the money."

"Why did you shot the two policemen?" Oliver said as he lowered his voice.

Waylon looked at Oliver with anxious eyes.

"I didn't shoot them because I had unfinished business with them.. don't get me wrong. Actually.. I shot them to get your attention."

"You killed two cops to get my attention? You could have just knocked on my office door. You found it now, you could have found it then. Or didn't you know I was the Arrow back then?"

"Oh no.. I knew all along. This might not make any sense, but I wasn't really the one who wanted your attention that way. He made me do this all."

"Who's he?" Oliver said strongly, demanding for an answer.

"Listen first, let me speak, please.." A pause again. "You saw me with another girl, because I actually have no feelings for Felicity."

Oliver exhaled deeply and started toward Waylon, who was taking a couple of steps back. Oliver, however, stopped his pace after a couple of steps and Waylon sighed in relief.

"So you can have her- I mean, no, she doesn't want.." Waylon swallowed the words he wanted to say, because he could tell from the look of Oliver's face that this conversation was going the wrong direction.

"Why were you with Felicity?!" Oliver said angrily.

"I'm not done yet. Please.. if you want your answers.. just listen."

"Then start talking!"

Waylon pursed his lips.

"First I want you to promise me, that after I have delivered you the information I know, you are going to let me walk out of this room, out of this building without you killing me. Okay?"

Oliver slowly nodded.

"I was with Felicity to break the bond the two of you have.. or had. To make her hate you, but damn, that was one hell of a hard job. It kind of worked though. She started trusting me and let go of you. Especially after your.. fight.. with her. She simply ran up to me and I had her full trust then. She went home herself after our date.. but I followed her and managed to.." he took deep breath before continuing. "to.. slip some drugs into her tea. I left her apartment right after. I didn't see her going unconscious, I didn't take her out of her apartment. You know.. you were at my house. I was home. You know right?"

Oliver ignored the last question. "Who gave you the drugs and who took Felicity?" He sharply asked instead.

"I own a building right out of Starling City, it's this old storage where nobody comes anymore. I have my own plantation there."

_Then if Waylon owns the building and the plantation.. then what was Grayson doing there? _

Oliver thought to himself.

"So, I got the drugs from myself. That was my job. Do the 'break the bond' part and the drugging part.' Taking Felicity however, was not my job. I work with two other people. Actually. I work with a woman named Paige and I work for.."

However, Waylon couldn't finish. His sudden screams interrupted his sentence. His hands flew up to his head, fingers tangled in his hair, pulling it hard.

"What's going on with me?!" Waylon yelled as he fell on his knees.

Oliver ran up to him, grabbing Waylon by his shoulders.

"HEY!" He said, trying to make Waylon look at him. But it wasn't working.

"My head. It's hurting." Waylon screamed as he kept on pulling his hair.

Oliver pushed Waylon down on the ground to let him lay there. He then grabbed for his phone and dialed 911, putting it on speaker also.

Suddenly blood started rushing out of Waylon's eyes.

"Damn it." Oliver shouted as he tried wiping away the blood.

Then Waylon started coughing uncontrollably. He was coughing up blood now too.

Oliver flipped him onto his side and kneeled in front of Waylon's face.

"Waylon." He whispered strongly. "Who do you work for?"

Waylon looked Oliver straight in the eyes, his lips slowly moving, a soft sound escaped his mouth, but Oliver couldn't understand.

"Who?!" Oliver asked again as he put his ear near Waylon's mouth.

Waylon murmured something, then started coughing again. Oliver groaned.

"Stay with me." He then shouted as he looked around and grabbed for his phone that was still trying to reach the emergency number.

Waylon moved his hand and grabbed Oliver's wrist firmly. His lips moved again and Oliver carefully listened.

"_She... alive.." _

Waylon exhaled slowly. Oliver looked him in the eyes, but saw Waylon slipping away. Waylon's grip loosened and his hand fell down on the ground.

_'No, no, no.' _Oliver thought as he rolled Waylon onto his back again. He placed his hands on Waylon's chest and started chest compressions.

"_911, what's your emergency?"_

Oliver kept on compressing.

"_Sir, madam?"_

He let out a loud groan as he pushed himself away from Waylon's helpless body.

"_Hello? What's your emergency."_

Oliver turned to his phone and ended the conversation. Instead he called Diggle.

"Oliver? I'm outside. I can't get in. The police are all over the place."

"Diggle, he is gone."

Silence.

"Waylon, he's gone."

"What? How?" Diggle asked quizzically.

"Someone killed him and it wasn't me." Oliver said as he stared at Waylon's bloodied body. "He was about to tell me who he was working for, Digg. But before he could.. his entire body failed on him. Someone planned this. This wasn't a coincidence. Someone is playing games with us."

Diggle sighed, annoyance hearable.

"Let me search for lieutenant Lance. I'll be up in a minute."

Diggle hung up.

Oliver wiped his blood covered hands and sighed. Now that he had seen what they were capable of, he realized Felicity was in real danger. Even though he didn't know who _they _were. He was determined on finding them. Now that he also knew she was still alive, a weight was lifted off his shoulder. He was going to find her and bring her back home safely.

Even if it meant risking his own life.

* * *

**Thank you for reading! Don't forget to review. It's much appreciated!**


	20. Chapter 20

**Thank you all so much for still being here to read my fanfiction. I appreciate it.  
**

**How do you all feel about Charlotte Ross fulfilling the role of Felicity's mother? I'm absolutely thrilled! I so hope it's not only for flashbacks. I hope her mom actually comes to Starling City anyhow. We'll see.**

**Thanks again. Chapter 20 already :)**

**CW OWNS IT ALL.**

* * *

"mr Queen, is there anything else I can do for you?" A young officer asked as he politely smiled at Oliver.

"No, I'll be fine." Oliver replied.

The young officer nodded, handed him a bottle of water and took off to his colleagues. Oliver sat on a chair as he watched the officers taking a look at the scene. They were questioning some of his employees. Oliver then glanced at Waylon's body. Two medical examiners were investigating it. One actually touching the body, the other taking notes and photos.

Then he saw Diggle approaching the one who was taking notes and photos. They chatted for a bit. Thereupon, the medical examiner handed him a little plastic bag and a piece of paper. Oliver watched the interaction as he opened his water bottle and took a sip.

"Oliver."

It was lieutenant Lance.

Oliver turned around to face him. Lieutenant Lance was faintly smiling at him.

"Lieutenant." Oliver said as he stood up.

"This may be too soon, because of what happened just a moment ago.. but I need to ask you some questions, Oliver. Are you willing to answer them?" Lance abruptly asked.

Oliver quickly glanced at Diggle who was still talking with the examiner, he then focused his attention back to Lance and nodded yes. Lance cleared his throath before he begun.

"How do you know mr Cane?" Lance asked as he crossed his arms and patiently waited for a response.

Oliver thought about his answer for a second before answering.

"mr Cane and I met when he had an appointment with Felicity Smoak in Korso's two evenings ago. We happened to be there at the same time."

"Have you seen him after that again?"

"I was at his house yesterday.. to ask him about Felicity. She never showed up at the meeting and I knew he was the last person she had been with."

Oliver realized how stupid that sounded. Normally when someone didn't show up at a meeting, their boss wouldn't give a crap and might even consider firing that person. Now he fully admitted that as the CEO he went on a full search for Felicity. He wondered if Lance found it odd too.

Nevertheless, Lance didn't ask about the meeting. He only asked if someone could confirm he was at Waylon's yesterday and Oliver mentioned Diggle had been with him.

"Do you have any idea why Waylon had you as a target?" Lance now asked.

_Yes. _Oliver wanted to say, but instead he stayed quiet. Lance noticed the hesitation and swallowed.

"Do you think it has anything to do with the missing of Felicity Smoak?" Lance added to his question.

Oliver clenched his teeth at that remark and then inhaled softly.

"I don't know." He replied. His gaze wandered off to a Diggle shaking the hand of the examiner. Diggle folded the paper up and shoved it in his pocket. The little plastic bag he put in a tiny pocket in his jacket. After that, Diggle turned around and started toward Lance and Oliver. When he noticed Oliver was gazing at him, he fastened his walk.

"How is everything going." Diggle said as he greeted lieutenant Lance.

"Everything is going fine, for now." Lance replied politely, before turning back to Oliver again.

Oliver kept looking at Diggle and his partner looked back. Oliver didn't say anything, but that wasn't even necessary. Diggle knew exactly what he was implying. When Diggle softly nodded in determination, Oliver grabbed Lance's arm and pulled him into his office.

"What's going on?" Lance asked as he looked around the office and then watched Diggle locking the office door. "They can still see us?" He then added.

"I know. But they can't hear us." Oliver said as he stood there in his office, positioned in front of a surprised Lance. Diggle stood in silence, his back against the door.

"Waylon was here to tell me Felicity is still alive." Oliver started. "He also admitted to me that he owns the plantation right out of Starling City.." he stopped to observe the look on the lieutenant's face. "But besides that. He was the one who killed your two colleagues. He admitted that too."

This triggered Lance.

"Why would he tell you that, Oliver? That makes no sense whatsoever. Felicity's part.. I can slightly understand he would tell you.. but.."

"He told me because I was a threat to him, but also a helping hand. He was involved with Felicity's kidnapping and if he told me where she was and whom he was working for, I wouldn't kill him. He was here to give me the information I needed, but he died when he actually could."

"Why did you even think of killing him?"

Oliver ignored the question.

"I initially thought Waylon was working alone, but he told me he had been working with two other people. One of them I feel is Grayson Sanchez."

Lance frowned and rubbed his brow. He took a quick glance over his shoulder to look at a very relaxed Diggle and then looked back at Oliver. Lance's mind was in overload. Thoughts were filling it and he was trying to put the pieces together. He sighed and stared down at the ground, still rubbing his brow softly.

"I don't understand.." He quietly whispered.

"I think you do."

It didn't seem to be Oliver speaking now, in fact, it was another familiar voice Lance had heard before a lot. He quickly looked up and glared at the man in front of him. A man he thought was only the CEO of Queen Consolidated. A man who could have everything he imagined. A man who had suffered a lot, a man who was _still_ suffering a lot.

"You are.." Lance softly began, his face covered in shock.

"The Arrow." Diggle ended as he pushed himself away from the door and walked over to stand beside Oliver.

"That makes so much sense.." Lance now murmured to himself, even though the two men in front of him could hear.

Oliver couldn't help but grin. Diggle looked at his partner and then back at Lance before he started talking.

"First, we were only working on getting the one who shot your men. We ran into Waylon who seemed completely innocent, until he started something with Felicity and she disappeared. We have been on his nerves ever since and today he finally admitted his crimes. However, before he could give any decent information to Oliver about Felicity's whereabouts.. he was killed with _this_."

Diggle pulled out the tiny plastic bag and showed a piece of metal. Both, Oliver and Lance, looked at it quizzically.

"It's a chip, controlled from a distance. Someone must have pushed a button that triggered the chip to shut down his brain." Diggle paused and shoved the chip back into his pocket. "So Waylon is gone. He was the one who killed your men. However, Felicity is still in real danger, maybe even the rest of the city is too. If Waylon could kill two policemen without hesitation and then die by a dangerous, tiny chip.. imagine what the group he was working with, can do else."

"Lieutenant. We need your help. Not only for Felicity, but for the sake of the city." It was Oliver who was speaking again.

Lance was directly looking him in the eyes, his lips were partly open, ready to say something.

"Oliver.. how could you have kept this a secret for so long." He began quietly.

"I don't want to risk the lives of the ones-" but before Oliver could explain fully, Lance was already continuing on.

"You spend five years on a hellish island and g'd may know what you have been going through out there. You already lost five years of your life.. and now." He paused. "I realized something, not a long time ago." a pause again. "You must have been giving up a lot in exchange for maintaining your identity a secret while at the same trying to make Starling City a better place. I scowled you out at first. I was neglecting the fact that you were trying to be the good in this city, while I know most of us can't do the things you have done. I owe you lot. This city owes you a lot. I now understand why you're scared for the reaction of the people of Starling City if they find out that the CEO of Queen Consolidated is their hero."

"I'm not a hero." Oliver stopped him there. Being called a hero was something he could never get used to. Yes, he, himself, had said to Slade he was a hero, but that was only to win the ultimate fight. Oliver'd only really accepted that word when Felicity had called him that... He sighed deeply when thinking about that moment in the lair. He had gotten his mask for the first time and he remembered her putting it on him.

_"How do I look?"_

He remembered the little pause she took before proudly telling him

_Like a hero.._

He shrugged the memory out of his mind and paid his attention back to Lance.

Lance placed his hand on Oliver's shoulder and cocked his head a little to the side.

"I don't say this often to people.." He took a deep breath. "but thank you and I'm sorry."

Lance squeezed Oliver's shoulder before dropping his hand again.

That was all he had to say for now. They were in the midst of a beginning crisis and he knew that, though he truly wanted Oliver to know how he felt and how sorry he was. He had been an ass to him and he knew that. Thereupon, to find out Oliver being the Arrow made him feel even more guilty of his actions toward this young man who was willing to do everything to safe this city, to safe the people, even if it meant he could be killed himself.

Lance started grinning when he realized he could have seen this coming. He could have known Oliver was the Arrow. After all, ever since Oliver had returned, the craziest things had happened. He didn't want to blame Oliver for bringing the evil in town, but he couldn't deny Oliver had something to do with it either.

Lance now also understood the bonding Sara and Oliver still had after their return from the island. Sara was an assassin, Oliver the Arrow. They knew each other's secret. They had both been through a lot. Things became more explainable.

"I have so many questions to ask you." Lance said, grinning widely. However, he noticed the concerned looks on Oliver and Diggle's faces and realized they had a question ready for him. He could also tell what that question was going to be.

"No. I won't tell anyone. You don't have to fear for that. After everything you have done for this city, the people, my daughters.. that's the least I could do."

Oliver relaxed and smiled a bit, happy with the outcome of the conversation with Lieutenant Lance. He was relieved he had told him. This made things a bit easier from now on. It was usually Felicity who talked to Lance and exchanged information, but that wasn't possible now. It was for the best if he did it himself, as the Arrow and as Oliver Queen.

"So what is the plan?" Lance said as Oliver had never exposed himself to him just moments ago.

"We need to find Grayson. You know we saw him at the plantation because we initially thought he owned it. That last part isn't true apparently, however, it is odd that he was at a plantation that Waylon owned. We found the most important extract of GHB at the plantation that was used on drugging Felicity. Waylon _owned_ the plantation, Grayson _was _at the plantation, therefore we believe that not only Waylon was involved in Felicity's kidnapping but also Grayson." Diggle said.

"We will go on a search ourselves and we would like you to do the same with some of your men. We have to keep it as silent as possible, for Grayson not to notice we are searching for him." Oliver said.

Lance nodded in understanding.

"We will go to the plantation first, maybe Grayson is there again. I don't know where you guys are going.."

"We will keep in touch." Diggle said to reassure Lance.

Lance nodded again and briefly glanced at both men, then he walked over to the door. Before he opened it and completely walked off he turned around one more time.

"Thank you. You both." He quietly said.

Thereupon, he walked out.

* * *

**Lance knows.  
Waylon is dead.  
Grayson is the main suspect now. (as there are actually no other suspects) However, is Grayson even involved?  
The bromance between Oliver and Diggle is real, but their bubbly blonde light is still missing.  
Paige though, where's that woman at? We know she exists.. Oliver and Diggle on the other hand..**

**Thank you for reading. Don't forget to review! Reviews motivate me the most, so if you want to read more chapters.. ;)**


	21. Chapter 21

**I live for your reviews, favorites and follows. Thank you. There is something I need to get of my chest though. I found the pictures of "Felicity" and "Barry" (awkwardly) holding hands and stuff, very disturbing haha. I hope Barry tries to kiss her and she'll be like "I'm sorry. I can't. Oliver.." I seriously don't want them together, unless it is to make Oliver jealous, but Felicity is not like that, so..**

**But I'm looking forward to The Flash though, I think it's going to be a great show. **

**Note: I changed chapter 20 a tiny bit, the hero part. I added something with Slade, nothing special though, but it feels better this way.**

**CW OWNS IT ALL.**

**Enjoy ;)**

* * *

Even before she could open her eyes, pain and panic shot through her. Scenes flooding back, her fight with Paige, Waylon showing up, her possibility to flee. She jolted up, limbs flailing, eyes opening to find herself.. in a plain, clean room. It was not the same room she had been in before though.

Felicity tried to lift her hands, but she was tied up to a bed. She swallowed, flashing back to moments ago, to the other room where she had been bounded also, until the man had freed her but thereupon hit her.

She was able to sit up a bit, resting herself on her elbows. As she looked around, she saw a desk with a computer. One that could have come in handy if she was able to free herself. Maybe she could code something to Oliver, Diggle or even the Police Department, but as she looked down at the knots, she knew she couldn't untie them.

She shifted on the bed as she tried looking over her shoulder. There was a metallic cabinet standing behind her. Beside the cabinet stood another desk. On the desk were tubes, syringes, stethoscopes and bottles with liquids. She tightened her lips. She didn't want to come near that desk anyhow, but she knew there was a reason why she was placed in this room and she was sure it had something to do with the desk she actually wanted to avoid.

Her heart started pounding fast, she had to get out of here. She still didn't know who her enemy was, but she did know it wasn't the sweetest. She licked her lips as she noticed they were dry and hurting a bit. She really had to drink something, or she was going to pass out soon.

She lay down again, breathing slowly to steady her heartbeat. Last thing she wanted was for Oliver and Diggle to find out she had died from a heart attack. Felicity let out a little chuckle, as she thought of that ironic scenario.

A door handle was heard, the door to the room opened and Paige revealed herself.

"Well, well. You're awake. Took you awhile though." She said as she closed the door behind her.

She was wheeling another desk with a lot more bottles with liquid on it, one bottle even seemed filled with water. When Felicity saw the bottle, her eyes widened. Paige noticed.

"Thirsty huh?" Paige said as she grabbed the bottle and then took a cup out of a drawer. Felicity observed as Paige opened the bottle and poured some water into the cup.

"Good thing my partner didn't want you to dehydrate." She said as she walked over to Felicity and held the cup in front of her.

Felicity pushed herself up and leaned on her elbows again.

"Who's your partner?" Felicity asked as she looked Paige straight in the eyes.

Paige frowned.

"Can't you drink first? You talk a lot." She said in an irritated voice as she placed the cup against Felicity mouth.

Felicity tightened her lips again. First, she wasn't offered with any food or water and now she just simply got it, that was strange in so many ways.

Paige sighed.

"If you don't open your damn mouth now, I'll force you." She said as she pressed the cup harsher against Felicity lips.

Felicity clenched her teeth for a second before deciding to open her mouth and fill it with the water she had been waiting for. It wasn't enough though. Her head was still throbbing and her lips still felt like they needed the ocean to hydrate it again.

Paige threw the cup in a trashcan that was, apparently, under the bed Felicity was sitting on.

"Can you now tell me whom you're working with?" Felicity quietly asked as she watched Paige walking over to the please-avoid-me desk.

"I'm not here to chit-chat with you, Felicity." Paige said as she grabbed a tube and a syringe.

"If you're still angry about the whole fight between us, I just really needed to have some air.. I mean.."

"Oh safe your words."

Felicity pursed her lips. This woman was stiff and unsocial and really wasn't here to chit-chat. Nevertheless, she kept on trying communicating with Paige.

"Okay. So you won't tell me whom you're working with. Could you at least tell me why you need me? Look, I'm not special, you said that yourself. So.. why me?"

Paige let out a loud sigh, attached the syringe somewhat to the tube and walked over to the desk she had been wheeling.

"You _seemed_ approachable and you _were_ approachable." She suddenly answered.

"Approachable? By Waylon you mean?"

Paige flinched when she heard Waylon's name and Felicity let out a little 'oh'.

"That son of a bitch betrayed us. His job was to approach you and drug you."

"But.. he did that, didn't he? I was approached.. and I guess I was drugged.. so.. he did his job."

"Exactly. He did his job and he shouldn't have involved himself again. But I guess Waylon shat himself when the Arrow didn't stop running after him. That's why he tried to free you. Don't think he is a nice man after all, because he isn't. He never liked you Felicity. He only liked hookers, younger girls and himself. I'm glad he's gone."

Felicity stiffened to that last part.

"Gone?" She whispered loud enough for Paige to hear.

Paige looked up as she let the liquid from the tube get into the syringe.

"Yes, Felicity. Gone as in dead. The poor man died after all."

Felicity bit her lip as she tried picturing a lifeless body of Waylon. He had died right after he had tried helping her escape. She couldn't feel entirely sorry for him though, she felt disgusted too. She'd truly believed he liked her, but to find out he slept with hookers and younger girls.. that made her want to throw up.

Paige noticed the shock on Felicity's face.

"You didn't really have any feelings for him did you?" Paige said with a chuckle, however, Felicity didn't react.

The door opened again. A man got in the room. He had the same build and height as the man whom had hit her early, but this time the man wasn't wearing a mask nor dark clothing.

"Hello Felicity."

Nor was he using his robotic voice.

"Grayson.." Felicity said quietly as her eyes widened.

"You know my name. What a surprise." Both, Grayson and Paige, started grinning.

Grayson walked over to Felicity. Felicity bit her lip and closed her eyes as he cupped her face and planted a kiss on her forehead.

"So precious, yet so vulnerable." He whispered as he pulled away.

"Why?" Felicity let out in shock.

Grayson sighed and placed himself on the side of the bed.

"Unfinished business as we may call it." He said as he placed a hand on her leg. Felicity quivered, but tried not to show Grayson or Paige.

In the meanwhile, Paige had removed the tube from the syringe and had added some other fluid into the syringe. When Paige seemed satisfied with the syringe and the liquid in it, she handed it over to Grayson.

"What is that?" Felicity asked, anxiety written all over her face. Paige stayed silent and grabbed a wet towel to clean the spot where the needle was supposed to go in. Felicity looked down at her arm where Paige was disinfecting it.

"This, my dear, is something you know already. In fact, you had many encounters with it. You even thought it was all vanished." He paused. "In for a surprise?" he paused again. "It isn't all vanished."

"No…" Felicity said quietly. "That can't be.. it isn't.. we.. the explosion.. how did you get.."

"You're talking too much again." Paige said annoyed as she rolled her eyes and turned her back to Felicity and Grayson.

"Oh darling, let her be. It is a shock to her." Grayson said to Paige before focusing back to Felicity. "My beloved partner did some great blood research on you and apparently, your body can handle this. We can give this to you."

He looked at the syringe in his hand.

"We can give this last bit of Mirakuru to you. You won't die from it, you'll get stronger and better." He said with a grin, still focused on the syringe.

"No." Felicity said in disbelieve. "It's impossible." She was still thinking about the explosion.

This made Grayson snap. "Nothing is impossible! It is here, it's been here all along. And you will be injected by it. You'll be working with us. Why need your _Robin Hood_ when you can have us, dear?"

Felicity inhaled deeply before reacting. "You are pure evil. I don't want anything to do with you." Felicity said as she started moving. Grayson removed his hand from her leg. "I don't understand why. I don't understand why you'd use your last bit of Mirakuru for me. Don't you want more? Don't' you want the power" She added quizzically.

Grayson started laughing now. "Oh dear, we only need this for you. We don't need more."

Felicity flinched and started screaming at the top of her lungs. Paige turned around immediately and placed her hand firmly over Felicity's mouth.

"Just inject her with it already. She's a pain in the ass." She said loudly as the screams softened.

Felicity started shaking and didn't try to control it. Tears started welling up, she tried fighting those. However, she failed. They started rolling down her cheeks. Grayson saw the tears and wiped one away.

"Oh hush, Paige. She's scared. That's alright. She won't be after. All be fine." Grayson whispered as his grin returned.

Then he stood up. He placed a hand firmly on Paige's shoulder and nodded. "Go ahead. She's ready." He insisted. He glanced down on Felicity, cocked his head and wheeled. As he started to the door he looked around one more time.

"You'll be fine dear, Paige will take care of you."

He smiled at Paige one more time before heading out.

"Will you stop screaming now?" Paige said, remaining her hand over Felicity's mouth and crouching down to get to eye level.

Felicity slowly nodded in anxiety and Paige removed her hand.

"Now sit still and let me do this." She murmured as she placed the tip of the needle against Felicity's clean skin, but Felicity started moving uncontrollably. This way Paige couldn't stick the needle in the right spot.

"G'd damn it." Paige yelled in disbelieve as she threw her hands in the air. She walked back to the desk and grabbed another syringe, filling it with some other liquid, but Felicity couldn't tell what it was.

As soon as Paige was finished she strolled back to Felicity and crouched down again.

"You're not the only one who can play games, _dear_." Paige spit to Felicity.

She showed the other syringe that didn't have the Mirakuru in it and placed it against Felicity's neck. This was the point where Felicity started screaming and moving again, but it didn't prevent the needle from going into her skin. Paige held onto Felicity's head as she pressed syringe, making the liquid go into Felicity.

Felicity could feel it running through her body already and her body started adjusting to it too. Nothing happened to her screams, however she weakened. Her body slowly stopped moving, she couldn't control it.

She was numbed.

"Better." Paige said ironically as she then showed the syringe with the Mirakuru.

Felicity stopped her screams, because she knew they weren't going to help her now. As she saw the needle coming closer, she bombarded herself with memories. Talks with the old lady on the bench, coziness in her apartment, firm hugs and comforting talks with Diggle, laughs with Roy, when Sara learned her how to have a strong foundation and the moment in the Queen mansion with Oliver.

_I love you_

Felicity closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.

"_I love you.." _She whispered back

Paige heard the words. "Is the Mirakuru making you crazy already? I don't fall for girls." She said with a laugh.

Felicity kept her eyes closed, ignoring Paige, because apparently, Paige kept on talking to Felicity, but Felicity couldn't hear. She was drifting off. Drifting off to somewhere unknown and she couldn't run away from it. She was scared, but she had no choice than to let it go. She exhaled one last time before everything shut down.

* * *

**THE MIRAKURU. WHAT?!**

**please review, it motivates me ;)**


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22. Finally, after my laptop decided to carsh multiple times. How convenient. Anyway, I'd like to thank you all again for your support and love. It's one of the things that makes sure I smile. So thank you.**

**I really enjoyed writing this chapter so I hope you enjoy reading it!**

**CW definitely owns it all!**

* * *

"Why is this taking so long?"

"Patience, darling. She will wake up soon."

"She's been out for three hours straight."

"Paige. Shut up. Or you'll be out for _five_ hours straight."

She could hear them talk in the distance, but she couldn't reach them anyhow. She felt weird, but weird in a good sort of way. She focused on her breathing as she tried reaching the voices. Slowly, but steady, the voices became louder, smells triggering her, awareness present for the blood rushing fast through her veins.

Her eyes popped open. Shaking in sweat she pushed herself up. As she shoved some hair from her forehead she looked around the room. Paige and Grayson were looking at her with huge grins on their faces. She then saw she was surrounded by glass walls. Shock hit her.

"What is this?" She quietly asked as she also noticed Paige and Grayson were actually on the other side of the glass walls.

"Some protection, dear. You have the Mirakuru running through your body. We need to make sure you use your powers the right way and _not _against us." Grayson said as he took a few steps closer to the wall of glass.

Felicity placed herself on her knees as she didn't feel like standing up, though she didn't feel weakened anymore. Her headache was gone and she didn't feel dehydrated either. Then she noticed something was itching her face. She let her fingers trail her cheeks. When she removed them to look down at her fingers, she noticed they were a bit covered up with blood. Felicity suddenly remembered that was the immediate effect of the Mirakuru. Blood would rush out of your eyes. This reassured her she truly was injected with the Mirakuru.

"Paige will clean you up later, even though that blood on your face makes you look sad in a fierce way." It was Grayson talking again. Felicity gazed up. For a split second she had forgotten they were still standing there, observing her.

"These glass walls won't protect you forever." Felicity snapped to scare both, Paige and Grayson. However, they didn't seem scared at all. Grayson's grin even became wider.

He crouched down to eye level and put his hand against the glass.

"We know." Paige replied as she walked over to a computer. She sat down behind the desk and started typing things. Suddenly, all lights went off except for a dim light above Felicity.

Felicity and Grayson were still on eye level, both staring at each other. Grayson looked amused, Felicity however? Not that much.

"You could just let me go. I won't hurt you, honestly. I won't tell the Arrow, really. I mean, I'm good at keeping secrets. I'm good at keeping things. Most of the time.. Sometimes I just shout it out, but you can trust me on this. I can keep a secret ." Felicity said rapidly.

"The Mirakuru didn't fix your rambling issue, what a shame." Paige said annoyed, gaze never leaving the computer screen.

"Are you keeping secrets Felicity?" Grayson asked abruptly as he sat down. Legs crossed, hands resting on his knees, gaze still fixed on Felicity.

Felicity swallowed, rubbing her arms uncomfortably.

"And now she can't speak?" Paige said angrily, throwing her hands in the air, shooting a quick angry look at Felicity.

"Paige." Grayson said sharply, before turning back to Felicity. "Well?"

Felicity let out an awkward, little chuckle. "Yeah.. isn't everybody keeping secrets? I'm.. I'm probably not the only one."

"True that." Grayson said in agreement. "For example, nobody knows I own a house in Amsterdam. You know you can do great business there? It's wonderful."

"No.. I didn't know." Felicity spoke softly. She was glancing around the room, wondering if she could break the glass anyhow. She knew the side effects of the Mirakuru and she really wanted to know if she was as powerful as Roy had been right after he had gotten injected with the Mirakuru. In the time Felicity was thinking of a proper escape plan, Grayson had kept on talking.

"Paige and I could tell something is bothering you. Mostly secrets bother someone. Felicity, we are not here to pressure you, in fact, we are here to.. help you and you are here to help us. We, with your.. issues." Felicity glanced back at Grayson at that last word, however, Grayson didn't stop talking to see her reaction. "And you can help us with our issue." She noticed he hadn't used the plural form of 'issue' in his last sentence. Felicity frowned.

Paige sighed in the back, not amused by the way Grayson was handling the situation.

"So, is there any secret you'd like to reveal?" Grayson asked.

Felicity realized she had to play along. Maybe she could pretend she wanted to work with them , so they could open up the door for her and that way she could escape. She put up a fake smile, but made it look genuine.

"Actually.. it's not really a secret that bothers me.. it's my youth." She repositioned herself onto her knees and continued on. "My mom really had to raise me without my dad. He never really was there for me. He abandoned us, to be exact." She stopped herself to look at the expression on Grayson's face.

Felicity then realized she had spoken the truth, unwillingly. In the end she had always thought her youth hadn't really bothered her, but saying those things out loud.. it did something to her. She glanced down at her hands, ashamed of the fact that she truly had revealed her vulnerable side.

"Well, I'm sorry." Grayson said genuinely. In the back, Paige let out a sarcastic chuckle, but both, Grayson and Felicity ignored it.

"So you moved to Starling City to.. start over?"

Felicity slightly nodded.

"You get a good job at Queen Consolidated and in the end you get a great job offered as mr Queen's executive assistant. Very impressive."

Felicity tried maintaining calm after hearing the words 'Queen Consolidated' and 'mr Queen's'.

"Did Waylon tell you all this?" Felicity said all of a sudden.

Grayson flinched and Paige stopped tapping her keyboard for a second.

"Maybe." Grayson answered before dropping the Waylon subject. "So you still feel bothered by your youth, even though you seem to have a pretty decent life now."

"Well.." Felicity began, but stopped herself again. Grayson was too persuasive at the moment and she really didn't want to look vulnerable again.

"Not that decent, huh?" Grayson noticed Felicity had wanted to correct him. "Okay. What is it you don't have? Oh wait. I can guess. A family.. A boyfriend. Ah.. I believe I get it."

Felicity clenched her teeth. Grayson wasn't talking exactly nicely anymore. She lifted her chin a bit and looked the man straight in the eyes. He wasn't going to overpower her, again.

"Oh my bad. How can you even afford quality time with a family member or a _normal_ boyfriend when you work 24/7."

"I don't work 24/7 at Queen Consolidated. I have enough spare time to do whatever I want." She snapped back, but unsure of that remark.

Grayson started laughing.

"That's wonderful dear, but I believe mr Queen makes sure your spare time is less than spare time."

"What do you mean?" She let out hesitantly.

"Perhaps you're not only his assistant, maybe you're his sidekick.. partner.. IT girl?" He said with a grin.

Felicity's eyes widened, her mouth partly opened, rage rushing through her. She jumped up and ran toward the glass, stopping herself with her hands. Grayson still sat on the ground, he hadn't even flinched when the blonde female tried to attack her.

Felicity breathed slowly as she tried to calm herself down. She found it rather odd she had jumped up like that, until realization hit her that it hadn't been exactly _her_ jumping up. It'd been the Mirakuru. Grayson had intentionally triggered her so he could see what the Mirakuru would give as an ultimate reaction.

When Felicity seemed to be calmed down, she took a few steps back, confusion written all over her face. The emotions she was feeling now were overwhelming her. Normally, she could keep them down a little, but her head felt like exploding and her emotions felt like they really had to be expressed. She couldn't control it and it was messing with her.

"How do you know this?" She asked quietly as she rubbed her forehead with the palm of her hand.

"Dear, I know more than you can imagine, that's why we are here to help you." Grayson said as he stood up and placed his hands on his hips.

"I don't need help." This time she shouted, the words had escaped her mouth before she could even think about them. She quickly placed her hand against her mouth. Why was she feeling this angry? She glanced at Grayson who seemed to enjoy his view. She felt disgusted.

"I wonder, why do you react so strongly to his name? I noticed." He stated as he examined a confused Felicity. She stayed quiet. Grayson sighed.

"You don't have to answer me. Let me do it for you." He then said as he started pacing around the room.

"You went to Starling City, empty handed, no friends, no family. Just all by yourself, which ultimately meant you had to start all over. You got a nice job at which you met Oliver Queen. A very nice and important man, who seemed to have his full interest in you. Things became even more amazing when he turned out to be _the Arrow. _You became a part of his work, together with mr John Diggle. How remarkable. The three of you are great friends, but what is it you add to the team? I mean, Sara Lance and Roy, I guess that's his name right?"

Felicity didn't answer but kept on listening, Grayson noticed and continued.

"Anyway, they showed up too and they'd so much to offer. How convenient. But there you were, poor Felicity Smoak. Stuck in a busy world with no spare time for herself. You only had to clean up the dirty work for your teammates. Nevertheless, you never stood up for yourself. You never seemed to care, because _they _were and still are the only ones close to you in your life. Truly, that's adorable. But I know you noticed you are the third wheel, always have been and that will certainly never change. Oliver Queen treated you like crap the entire time and John Diggle, he just acts like he cares, but he can only care about his girlfriend and unborn child."

"Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!" Felicity yelled as she slammed herself against the glass again. Tears were welling up, but she didn't want to cry. She felt miserable and vulnerable, even if she had the ability to snap Grayson's neck without any hard work. Grayson saw the watery eyes though.

"Don't cry. You know I'm right. You're _worthless _there, however you are worth a fortune here." Grayson said with a smirk on his face. He then turned to Paige. "Darling, I think Felicity needs more explanation and more.. examples."

Paige nodded and clicked on something on her computer screen. A speaker above Felicity turned on. Someone started talking.

"_You need to stay here."_

Felicity flinched.

"_You can't ask me to stay here."_

She recognized this too well.

"_I'm not asking. I will come and get you when this is all over."_

She closed her eyes and placed her hands against her ears to prevent the words from entering her mind.

"_NO."_

"_Felicity."_

"_Not unless you tell me why."_

She couldn't keep the words out. She kneeled down slowly, grabbing her hair and pulling it softly, torturing herself to the spoken words surrounding her.

"_Because I need you to be safe."_

Her heartbeat was going faster again.

"_But I don't want to be safe. I wanna be with you.. and the others. Unsafe."_

Her head started pounding.

"_I can't let that happen."_

Grayson watched her as she crumbled down to the floor.

"_Oliver, you're not making any sense."_

Anger started eating her alive.

"_Slade took Laurel because he wants to kill the woman I love."_

He grinned as he saw the pain and frustration written all over her face.

"_I know, so?"_

She couldn't bear it any longer.

"_So he took the wrong woman."_

She wanted to scream from the top of her lungs.

"_Oh.."_

And so she did.

"Turn it off. Turn it off, please." She screamed as she pulled her hair again. She was losing it and she didn't have it under control. She couldn't hear the last part of the conversation coming out of the speaker, but she didn't have to, to know what was spoken next. She knew it all too well.

Grayson raised his hands as a sign for Paige to turn off the speaker. Paige turned the volume down and smirked.

"Oh dear Felicity. This is a pretty clear example of you being used for a silly little plan. He didn't care about you at that moment, he never did. He only wanted the Mirakuru to vanish." Grayson spoke softly.

"Where did you get that?" Felicity said, her voice still raised.

"Copied it from the cameras." Paige replied rapidly.

"That's not important." Grayson said as an interruption. "What _is_ important is that our beloved miss Smoak here sees what we try to tell and explain her."

He turned to Felicity again, who had pushed herself up to sit down. Arms clenched around her legs. Chin resting on her knees. Her entire body shaking from anxiety.

"Felicity, you belong with us. You're not supposed to be _with _team Arrow, you're supposed to be _against _it."

Felicity shook her head no in frustration. She was going mental. A part of her wanted to believe Grayson and join them, but another part was being resistant and she didn't know which side to choose.

"Will you be working with us, dear?" Grayson asked, now crossing his arms.

"I don't know.." Felicity quietly whispered.

Paige sighed and Grayson started laughing.

"Well then.. _dear. _We have to convince you some more than." He paused for a moment. "Paige, turn it back on. Put in repeat."

Felicity's eyes widened as the speaker started again.

"_You need to stay here."_

"Tell us when you've made a decision." Grayson said as he started to the door, Paige following him.

"_You can't just ask me to stay here."_

The words were echoing in the room, making her head spin. Grayson and Paige exited the room and closed the door. Felicity crawled to a corner and started murmuring to herself, but she could still hear the words coming out of the speaker. Repeating itself over and over again.

"_You need to stay here." "You need to stay here." "You need to stay here."_

Felicity started yelping. She didn't feel like herself anymore_. Hatred_ toward the men she had been working with was welling up. _Distaste_ to the men she had adored was welling up. She did feel worthless and absolutely pathetic. She had ran away from her old hometown to start over and to _not _be the underdog for once. However, she felt like she could never run away from being the underdog, because it was proven that even here in Starling City, even here with the people she _thought _loved her, she was mistreated.

And she was done with that.

Done with the hurt, the pain, the mistreating.

Done with being the underdog, the third wheel, a worthless person.

Done with being who she was right now.

Felicity slowly stumbled up onto her feet. Pushing herself away from the corner she had been crawling to. She groaned as she started to the wall of glass. The closer she came, the faster she began to walk, and before she could even notice, she had broken the glass. Glass that was now all shattered on the ground.

She looked down at her arms. Cuts from the glass were visible, but they vanished as quickly as they had appeared. She glanced back up and looked at the door.

This was her way out.

Without any hesitation, she walked to the door and yanked it open. Grayson and Paige were now standing in front of her. Both had their arms crossed. Both frowned slightly. Both unsure of the situation.

Felicity was sure however.

She exhaled deeply as she started toward Grayson and Paige, both now smirking widely.

* * *

**Ok. Felicity just casually walked through glass. All is normal ;)**

**Please review! Reviews motivate me AND your opinion is truly important to me.**

**Thanks again.**


	23. Chapter 23

**50 days left till the season 3 premiere, so I thought it be nice to post a chapter to 'celebrate'. I actually believe this chapter is very exciting in a really twisted way, so I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.**

**Oh and in this chapter I actually wanted to make Oliver and Diggle fight as they did in the season three promo, but I decided to do it differently because it fits my storyline better this way.**

**You know your part of job.. reviewwww ;)**

**CW owns it all.**

* * *

They were back in the lair. Their well-known environment that felt safe in several ways. Safe in a way that their secrets were hidden in this particular room, safe in a way that they could observe Starling City without any notice from others, safe in a way that it was hard to get inside the room when security was fully turned on, with special thanks to Felicity. It was just safe and they were glad they had it.

But of course it occurred sometimes that it wasn't the safest and most secret room in Starling City. For example, when Deathstroke invaded the lair and caused chaos or that moment when everything simply exploded and the power was cut off. However, it didn't bother them. It wasn't like these things happened every single day or week.

"I have Grayson's face and Felicity's face running through Face Recognizition again." Diggle said as he turned away from the computers that showed the program.

Oliver was staring at his suit before turning to his partner. "How's Lyla doing?" He asked suddenly.

Diggle rubbed the back of his head, having himself frowning a bit at the question. "She's doing great. A friend of hers is staying over, so she has the company and help she needs." Diggle said slowly.

There was a silence and Oliver didn't try to fill it. It was obvious he wanted to say something to Diggle, but he wasn't acting like speaking it out loud anytime soon.

"Oliver." Diggle firmly said to get a reaction out of Oliver. He took a few steps closer to his young partner to observe his odd behavior better.

"I can't have you in the field anymore." Oliver let out as he glanced up to Diggle.

"We talked about this, Oliver. You need my help and I need to be there for Felicity too." Diggle said abruptly.

Oliver had seen that answer coming. Yes, they had discussed this several times, but Oliver still didn't feel great with having Diggle by his side when he knew his partner was becoming a father.

"Oliver, listen. I know where this is coming from. You've told me numerous times you want me to have the family you don't have anymore. And not to sound.. cheesy right now but […] you're family too and I'm not going to leave you behind either." Diggle started grinning.

Nevertheless, Oliver shook his head no and Diggle noticed. Diggle sighed before adding something more in his attempt to reassure Oliver it was a good thing to bring him along.

"Seriously, Lyla is doing fine and besides I'm going to make it out alive, in fact, I _have_ to make it out alive.. you too. Because if we don't.. a very remarkable blonde will kill us." He said with a chuckle in the end.

Now it was Oliver's time to grin. He wasn't going to tell Diggle he was right, however this was going to be his last attempt on trying to keep his partner completely away from the situation they were already in. Diggle was showing off his determination and there was absolutely nothing he could do about that.

All of a sudden, a beep was heard.

Oliver and Diggle turned around immediately to look at the computer screen that first had Grayson and Felicity running through the program, but now, it seemed to have a hit. A pop-up was showing.

"What is that?" Oliver questioned as they both started to the computer.

"I'm not sure, but normally, when the program has a hit.. it looks differently." Diggle responded.

They slowed their steps as the pop-up disappeared and the computer shut off. "Hey!" Diggle shouted at the computer as he ran over to it and tried turning it on again, but with no decent result.

Then out of nowhere, the computer started buzzing and it exploded in no time. It swept Diggle of his feet and he got slammed into a desk nearby. Oliver hit the ground as fast as he possibly could and protected his face. When things seemed to be cooled down, he gazed up in shock and searched for Diggle who was, despite his grand slam into the desk, trying to crawl up. He seemed fine.

Diggle saw the shock on Oliver's face.

"I'm truly fine." He groaned as he stumbled up entirely and looked around the room. Oliver stood up too and walked over to the computer. He crouched down to the same level as the broken computer was and observed it. Then he noticed a smile device between the computer pieces.

"Someone placed a bomb." Oliver slowly said.

Diggle wanted to react, but suddenly the power went off and everything became dark.

"Dig, we need to get out." Oliver demanded as he tried making his way to the exit.

Another loud bang. Another explosion. This time it was a lamp right above Oliver. Oliver had to jump aside, but that action made him bump into Diggle. They both hit the floor hard.

Now laughter was heard. It was distant, but there. Definitely there.

"Where's it coming from?" Oliver asked openly.

"Ah. Oliver Queen. A nice little place you have here. I'm sorry it's ruined now."

"Grayson." Oliver and Diggle whispered at the same moment, both recognizing the voice.

"You have decent security in here though, it was hard getting in, but I had some brilliant help."

Oliver and Diggle slowly got up, both taking a side to keep an eye on, even though it was dark and they couldn't really see a thing.

"However, this is not the first time I've managed to break into the security system and hack your computers and power."

"What is he talking about?" Diggle said out loud.

"I don't know." Oliver simply replied.

"Your dear Felicity witnessed it, but I don't think she realized it was a hacking system trying to break in. The poor girl got scared for a second there." A chuckle was heard now.

"Did she tell you, Dig?" Oliver asked as he tried to remember if Felicity had ever mentioned it to him.

"No. She didn't."

"The poor girl." Grayson said again. "The poor girl." And again. "The poor girl."

After hearing it for the third time, Oliver and Diggle relaxed a bit. They'd realized Grayson wasn't actually in the lair, he'd placed a speaker in the room somewhere to make it sound like he was in the lair.

But then, all of a sudden, a series of explosions started. Oliver and Diggle protected their faces as the explosions went on for what felt like a decent minute. When the last explosion occurred, the power turned on again and the laughter disappeared.

As Oliver and Diggle removed their hands from their faces they noticed the lair was a total ravage. Several things were broken. Some devices were smoking. Furniture was covered with dust. The lightning was weak which made the lair look like an old haunted place where nobody would like to go in.

"Are you sure you don't know Grayson, because he sure as hell is holding a grudge against you or us or anyone, I don't know." Diggle said as he stepped over a broken table.

"He only knew Merlyn and Tommy, I have never met the man before and I can't think of anything that I could have possibly done to him." Oliver said in reply as he exhaled deeply to clean his lungs from the dust.

Diggle let out a little cough as he his stunned gaze met the last two standing computers. They weren't harmed and they were still working. How he knew? The computers each showed a footage of a surveillance camera. It wasn't necessarily the footage Diggle had seen before, it was what was _shown _in the footage that he had seen before.

"Isn't this the mansion?" Diggle asked as he pointed at the computers, looking over his shoulder to reassure Oliver he was truly talking about the Queen mansion.

Oliver quickly walked over to the computers. He observed the footage and noticed it were the living room and his old bedroom shown in it.

"I think we need to go there." Diggle quietly said as he crossed his arms.

Oliver swallowed. The last thing he wanted to do was to go back to the mansion. He didn't want to step into the house he had grown up in, he didn't want to go back to a house full of memories of his family. Memories of his deceased mother and father. Memories of a now missing Thea. A memory of a very important moment with his favorite IT girl. He couldn't handle that right now. Not in the middle of this all. Leaving the house in the first place had been hard for him. That seemed odd, yes, and he couldn't explain, but it did hurt leaving it behind. And now to have to re-enter it, that wasn't going to be an easy job either.

Either way, Oliver nodded yes. Diggle was right, they had to go there.

* * *

"What's the plan?" Diggle asked as they sat in the van, observing the old Queen mansion.

Oliver sighed before answering. "I'm going inside and I need you to stay outside to make sure nobody else but me enters or leaves the mansion."

Diggle nodded in agreement and both men got out of the van. Oliver trailed his gaze over the mansion and then placed his finger against his ear to turn on the earpiece. He clenched his teeth and then started toward the big wooden doors.

Diggle had noticed the slightly visible hesitation Oliver'd had when walking up to the doors. It was then he realized it was going to be hard for Oliver to go back inside the mansion knowing it was where he'd lived almost his entire life. But Diggle was told to wait outside so he couldn't be there for Oliver right now. Which was actually also a good thing, because Diggle actually knew Oliver had to do this alone. Diggle watched Oliver open the doors, step in and close them after.

As he leaned against the van he rubbed his arms. It was cold today, but he was used to working in the cold due to his time in the military. Sometimes he still suffered from nightmares of his time in the military, but he managed to pull it through. Oliver had truly helped him through some hard times and he couldn't thank him enough for that.

Suddenly, Diggle heard something behind him. He pushed himself away from the van and walked to the other side. He noticed some branches were moving. Diggle slowly pulled out his gun and placed it gently in between his hands, finger on the trigger.

"Is there anything inside, Oliver?" Diggle asked quietly as he kept looking in the distance.

"I don't-" But Oliver was cut off.

"Oliver?" Diggle asked, placing his hand on his earpiece trying to reconnect. "Damn it."

The branches started moving again. Diggle raised the gun and aimed at the branches. He had to worry about Oliver later. Someone was watching them and he had to figure out who.

"I'm not there." A voice said.

Diggle turned around immediately and looked up to the van. Someone was standing on top of it. It jumped off the van and onto the ground and with a high kick it slammed the gun out of Diggle's hands. Diggle was surprised, but he managed to stay put. However, the person in front of him ran to him and slammed him into the side of the van. Diggle groaned and pushed himself to the person. He tried hitting the person in the face, but the person was too fast and dug so Diggle missed.

He then decided to change plans. As the person ran up to him he dug himself and went for the gun again. The person had slammed itself against the van and had to give itself a couple of seconds before turning back to Diggle.

Diggle managed to grab the gun from the ground and turn around to aim at the person. The person cocked its head. In this position, Diggle could observe the person. It was small and thin and didn't really have the built of a fighter. It was wearing a dark blue suit with a mask so he couldn't figure out who it was.

"Take of your mask." Diggle demanded. If he was going to shoot someone, he had to know who it was.

The person didn't do what was demanded, instead, it took a couple of steps closer to Diggle. Diggle fired. The bullet had hit the target in the arm, but the person hadn't even flinched. In fact, it only looked at the wound and kept on walking toward Diggle. Then it stopped, a few feet away from Diggle.

Diggle fired again and again, in the same arm. The third shot made the person groan a little and Diggle stopped. The person raised its arm and ripped off the mask.

"It's me." A soft voice spoke.

Diggle dropped the gun in shock, mouth partly opened, eyes widened.

"Felicity.." He said quietly.

She nodded yes and showed a genuine smile.

"You're safe." He softly added, still trying to process it all. "But how.."

"Oh safe your words." She suddenly said and her genuine smile disappeared. In a split second she grabbed the gun from the ground and aimed it at him. In an immediate reaction, Diggle raised his hands. Shock still rushing through him.

"What are you doing, Felicity." He tried to say, but his words only came out as a weird sound.

Felicity placed her finger against the trigger, closed one eye and then aimed the gun at his arm. She shot. Diggle growled in pain and jumped to the side near the front of the van. He dropped himself to the ground and crawled to the other side of the van. Felicity stayed put.

"Oliver." Diggle growled as he pressed his earpiece. "OLIVER." A little louder this time.

He then looked down at his arm. It was bleeding hard, but he couldn't take care of it now, knowing that Felicity was on the other side waiting for him to show up again. He didn't know why she was so cruel all of a sudden and he was weirdly surprised over the fact that she didn't really flinch when he'd shot her.

Soft footsteps were heard now and Diggle pressed himself against the van as Felicity appeared. She had the mask back on, but that didn't prevent him from picturing her with her own familiar face.

"Felicity, we can help you." Diggle said.

"People always say to me they'll help me.. but then they forget." She quietly spoke as she raised the gun she still had in her hands. She was aiming at his arms again, but before she could pull the trigger, the gun was shot out of her hand by an arrow.

Felicity immediately turned her face to the place where the arrow had come from. Oliver was standing in the doorway, another arrow already placed on his bow. He pulled and let go, but the arrow missed Felicity just an inch as she jumped away in a sudden reaction. Oliver kept on shooting at Felicity, but she was able to avoid the arrows as she turned her back to him and ran away.

Oliver grabbed for his last arrow and had the person in clear view, but before he could shoot he was stopped by Diggle. "Oliver, don't!" Diggle yelled as he tried to stand up. Oliver frowned but forced himself to lower his bow. Diggle knew Oliver hadn't seen the person behind the mask yet, that was apparently Felicity, so he had to prevent Oliver from killing her.

Both men watched the person escaping the scene. Diggle watched as he thought about the fact it'd been Felicity behind the mask and Oliver watched as he thought about this missed chance on finding Felicity.

"Why didn't you let me shoot, Dig." Oliver let out.

"I'm glad you even listened to me." Diggle replied.

"That person could have been useful." Oliver said loudly as he walked toward Diggle who was trying to stop his bullet wound from bleeding.

"That person is a _she_." Diggle began silently. "And you wouldn't have want her being shot either."

Oliver stopped his pace as he observed the concerned look on Diggle's face. Then realization hit him.

"That couldn't be.." He mumbled softly.

"I thought the exact same thing.." Diggle said. "But.. that was her. That was Felicity. And she is nothing but against us."

* * *

**I told you it was twisted. However.. WHAT IS WRONG WITH FELICITY THOUGH? Girl has problems ;)**

**Please review, favorite, follow. It's highly appreciated and those three things make me enjoy writing new chapters even more.**

**Thank you!**


	24. Chapter 24

**So Felicity's mom's name has been revealed. Donna :) Now we finally know! Aaargh. Sitting and waiting for season three. Time has to fly by a little faster because I'm losing my patience.**

**Anyway, chapter 24. I hope you like it ;)**

**CW OWNS IT ALL.**

* * *

"Hey Daddy." Laurel said as she pressed her phone against her ear, supporting it with her shoulder as she chopped the unions for dinner. "Why are you calling?"

"_I'm calling to tell you I'll be a little later. What time was I even supposed to come?" _

Laurel put down her knife and grabbed the phone in her hand. She turned around to lean against the kitchen counter and stare at the clock.

"You were supposed to be here in thirty minutes.. so at seven."

Lance cleared his throat on the other side of the line.

"_Right.. well.. make it seven thirty. Is that alright?"_

"Actually.. it's more than alright. I'm still busy chopping unions and I have a lot more cooking to do, so the extra time is appreciated." She answered with a chuckle.

Lance responded with a little laugh.

"Is everything okay, dad?" She asked as she noticed he was sounding quite distant and distracted.

"_I'm fine baby. Look, I'm just working on this case and it's very exhausting. Although the Arrow is helping us, I feel like it's a never ending case."_

Laurel bit her lip as she was listening to his explanation. She was so proud of him though. She truly respected the fact he had been so fine with the Arrow lately (little did she know he knew Oliver was the Arrow) and also did she respect the fact he had been doing such great jobs on all of his past cases. Adding it all up, Lieutenant Lance had a lot on his sleeve and that's why Laurel thought he looked more exhausted than ever.

"_But don't worry about me. You know me, I'm lieutenant Lance."_

Laurel could picture him grinning widely at the moment. She took a deep breath before telling him to hang up because she had cooking to do and he still had work to do and she didn't want to delay it any more He simple agreed, said his goodbyes and hung up.

Laurel locked her phone and placed it on the kitchen counter. She grabbed her knife once again and started chopping the unions. When she was done chopping, she grabbed a bowl and shoved the unions into it. Then she went over to the fridge and took out the chicken. It was already seasoned, so the only thing left to do was to put it on the grill.

After a while, her chicken was on the grill and the vegetables and rice were cooking. She'd changed her clothes, put back on the apron again and was now setting the table.

As she placed the glasses on the table a knock at her door was heard. She glanced up to look at the time and noticed it was exactly seven o'clock. She frowned but smiled. Her father must have been able to come in time after all.

"I'm coming!" She yelled in enthusiasm as she wiped her hands on her apron. She quickly ran up to her phone, checked for messages from her father, saw nothing and then smoothly shoved her phone into her pocket.

She then rushed over to the mirror to fix her hair a little, because even though it was her father, she wanted him to be proud of her as well and she just wanted to look decent enough for dinner. She then glanced around the room and was satisfied with the tidied up space around her.

She nodded to herself and walked over to the door. She smiled widely as she swung it open. However, her smile disappeared instantly when she noticed who was standing in the doorway.

"Felicity.. hi." Laurel said with confusion written all over her face.

"Hi Laurel. May I come in?" Felicity asked, smiling genuinely.

"Sure.. come in." Laurel said as she stepped aside.

Felicity walked in and looked around the room. She then took off her coat and hung it on the nearest chair.

"I like your apartment. It's cozy. And clean." She stated as she silently spun around in a circle and ended up facing Laurel.

"Thank you.." Laurel softly said, yet still confused. She crossed her arms and gave Felicity a quizzical look. "What are you doing here, Felicity?"

"Hmm.. I don't know." Felicity just simply said.

"Is.. is there something you need to tell me?" Laurel then asked.

Felicity ignored the question and looked at the chicken lying on the grill. "Ah. I see you're cooking. That's a bit too much for one person though." She stated as she pointed at the grill.

Laurel followed the direction Felicity was pointing at and then nodded. "My dad is coming tonight for dinner." She smiled saying that, but then frowned. "So.. what are you doing here again?"

Felicity wheeled and walked over to the dining table. She turned a chair and sat down. As she placed her hands on the table she folded them and glanced up to Laurel.

"I just wanted to stop by and say hi. We have never really gotten the chance to talk."

Laurel frowned again.

"So let's talk." Felicity added as she patted the chair on her right, motioning Laurel to sit down beside her.

"Are you okay..?" Laurel asked as she walked over to Felicity and sat down, legs crossed, hands placed on her knees. Even though the two women had never really gotten the chance to have a proper talk or anything, she knew Felicity nor herself ever had the urge to talk to one another. In fact, they both felt like they didn't really have much in common. They always just greeted each other and acted all nice, but nothing more exciting happened between the two of them. This was the main reason she thought Felicity was acting odd right now. Why would she, unannounced, suddenly show up at her apartment. Besides that, right now, Felicity was acting quite straight to the point. No rambling, no nervousness.. which normally always happened when Laurel did see the blonde.

"You think I'm not okay?" Felicity asked, faintly smiling.

"Is it Oliver?" Laurel suddenly said.

Felicity's eyes widened and then she slightly nodded yes. Laurel sighed. Now things were making sort of sense. The real thing, or person, they had in common was Oliver. However, Laurel would have never thought Felicity would stop by at _her_ place to talk about Oliver, because Felicity could have easily called Sara. They were friends after all. Laurel and Felicity? Not that much.

"So what is it about Oliver you want to tell me.. or ask me about?" She slowly asked, observing the way Felicity was folding and unfolding her hands. Nervousness, she thought.

"It's just.." Felicity's voice was shaking and Laurel immediately placed a hand on the blonde's shoulder, showing her support. Felicity quickly smiled in a way of a thank you. Thereupon, she took a deep breath.

"It's just that I think Oliver is acting so dumb the past couple of days."

"Oh I know that." Laurel said with a chuckle. "Sometimes, he can be so stubborn."

"Exactly. But.. he is always so focused on protecting others that he forgets about himself. And he is very important too, you know."

"I know."

"I mean, he's so focused on me being safe, it's annoying." Felicity said, placing her elbows on the table and resting her chin on her hands.

"I think it's.. cute.. I guess. He's looking out for you, quite a.. gentlemen." Laurel replied, adding a soft smile.

"Yes.. but.. he's so focused on me right now that he forgets to protect others too."

Laurel started laughing quietly. "What are you talking about?"

Felicity faced Laurel and started staring at her. Laurel shifted uncomfortably on her chair.

"Felicity.. who does he have to protect too?"

Felicity showed her teeth as she softly spoke.

"You."

Felicity jumped up and grabbed for Laurel's hand that had been resting on her shoulder the entire time. She yanked it aside and twirled Laurel around, pushing her against the table, twisting her arm and pushing it against her back. Laurel started yelping in pain.

"FELICITY. What are you doing?! You're hurting me! Stop it!"

"I'm hurting you? _This _is nothing compared to how you have been hurting me." Felicity pushed her harsher against the table.

"I don't know what you mean. Please, let go. We can talk about it."

"Talk about it?! Oh, c'mon. That's not even fun. This however.." Felicity said as she then pulled Laurel away from the dining table to drag her to the kitchen counter and slam her against it. Laurel yelped again. Felicity let go and Laurel dropped to the floor.

Felicity turned around and walked over to the mirror.

"Oh. I'm a mess." She softly said as she bent a little forward and checked herself out. Fixing her hair and clothing a little.

As Felicity was looking in the mirror, Laurel'd managed to get up. She leaned against the kitchen counter for support. Her eyes searching for something on the counter to help her. Then she noticed the knife she had been chopping the unions with. She glanced back at Felicity who was still looking at the mirror and then she slowly started toward the knife, making as little sound as possible.

Suddenly Felicity turned around, but in a split second, Laurel could grab for the knife and was now hiding it behind her back. Felicity slowly lifted her chin and squeezed her eyes a little.

"Are you playing games with me _Dinah Laurel Lance_." She snapped.

Laurel shook her head no as fast as possible. She quickly looked up at the clock. Five minutes until her father would arrive. Five minutes until this all would be over.

Felicity slowly started toward Laurel. When she was close enough, Laurel took a risk. She showed the knife and tried stabbing Felicity in the stomach, but Felicity was able to jump aside before being stabbed. Laurel ran up to Felicity and tried to stab again, however, Felicity blocked her attack again and simply kicked the knife out of her hand.

"Laurel, look at me."

Laurel looked up at Felicity.

"See this?" Felicity asked as she showed her hand.

Laurel slowly nodded.

"Not anymore." Felicity stated, before making a fist out of her hand and hitting Laurel in the face. Laurel fell down, slamming her head on the counter on the way and going unconscious.

* * *

"Laurel, honey?" Lance said with his voice raised as he kept knocking at the door. He had been standing there for a moment now and he was losing his patience. He sighed loudly as he shoved his hand into his pocket to search for the keys.

"I have the key! I'm coming in now." He said even harder before yanking the key into the lock. He turned the key and the door opened smoothly. But then the scent of burnt food rushed into his nostrils. He immediately placed his hand over his nose and looked around the room. He saw a grill was turned on and he couldn't tell what was lying on it, but it definitely wasn't edible anymore. He quickly ran over to the grill and turned it off then he walked over to the windows and opened them widely.

He coughed a bit as he observed the room again. He knew Laurel would never leave her apartment like this, with food still grilling and cooking. He fished his cellphone out of his jacket and dialed Laurel's number. No answer. He walked across the room to the dining table. The table wasn't set properly. Everything was out of place and as he looked carefully at the table he noticed it was a bit broken too.

"_What the hell.." _He whispered.

He then walked back to the kitchen counter. He now noticed a small red spatter on the floor and a knife lying a couple of feet away. He crouched down and touched the spatter with his finger. As he looked at the red stuff on his finger he realized it was blood.

"LAUREL." He yelled, immediately jumping up and running toward her bedroom. Nothing. Her bathroom. Nothing. A closet. Nothing.

"Damn it." He screamed as he ran out of her apartment.

He grabbed for his phone again as he kept on moving forward. He dialed a number.

"Oliver!" Lance said as someone picked up the phone.

"_Lieutenant. What's going on?"_

"It's Laurel. Something is wrong."

"_What happened? Is she okay?"_

"I don't know. She wasn't home when she was supposed to be. I found blood on her floor."

"_Did you call her?"_

"Yes g'd damn it. She's not picking up the phone. It looked like she's been in a fight." He yelled as he ran up to his car and yanked his door open.

Oliver didn't respond.

"Someone must have taken her." Lance said as he started the engine. "We have to find her Oliver. After everything she's been through.."

"_Lieutenant.. we'll find her."_

"Oliver."

"_We'll find her."_

And then Oliver hung up. In mixed anger and anxiety, Lance threw his phone to the backseat. He grabbed the steering wheel firmly and drove off.

* * *

**Not the longest chapter, however, I wrote this a couple of days ago and I wasn't sure whether or not to use it. As it turned out.. I did ;)**

**PLEASE REVIEW, really appreciated! **


	25. Chapter 25

**Writer's Note: I think I suffered from several heartattacks after watching the new season three promo. I mean, c'mon. My poor little heart can handle this. You all know what I'm talking about right?! THE OLICITY KISS. It's finally happening and I couldn't be happier and more emotional than I already am. Still smiling widely when I think about it and I think about it 24/7 so I'm smiling 24/7.**

**But I have several question marks flying above my head. She was wearing that pink/purple dress and her ponytail which means the kiss is not at the date but BEFORE the actual date I guess. And if you look closely, it seems like he tells her 'I love you' before he kisses her. But I mean.. 3x01 is going to be so good, but so many things happen and I can't really figure out in which order! The smiles in the lair, the kiss, Oliver asking her out, the date itself, the explosion. Can someone please come with a theory of how 3x01 will be going?! I'm lost.**

**PS. I hope they actually kiss and they are not interrupted by anything or anyone OR it's Felicity dreaming it lol (are they standing in a hospital or in Oliver's new place?)**

**Anyway. Here's a new chapter. Hope you like it ;)**

**CW OWNS IT ALL.**

* * *

Diggle groaned as Oliver stitched the bullet wound Felicity had caused. They hadn't had time to go to the hospital so Oliver had to do it, which was fine with Diggle because the hospital would have kept him there and would have given him antibiotics he really didn't want to have. Diggle glanced down at Oliver who was extremely focused on the stitching.

"You think Felicity took Laurel?" Diggle suddenly asked while breathing heavily in between his words.

"I wouldn't know who else." Oliver said as he kept his eyes on the stitches.

Diggle flinched as Oliver accidently pressed his finger on the wound.

"Don't take this out on me." Diggle said with a little chuckle as he closed his eyes. Oliver couldn't help but grin.

"Done." He said as he stood up and watched as Diggle rolled his sleeve down.

They were in the van, still in front of the mansion, because they actually had no idea where to go. They didn't know where Felicity had gone to before Lance had told them the news Laurel was missing. But the missing part was the annoying part. So far, Grayson and Felicity had been great in hiding and going MIA. It was hard finding them as Face Recognizition didn't give any hits whatsoever.

"Do we even know what Lance is doing right now or where he's going?" Diggle asked as he looked up at his partner.

"I think he's going back to the police department to get a team ready to go on a search for Laurel." Oliver said as he climbed to the driver's seat. Diggle followed him and positioned himself onto the passenger's seat. "I'm sure lieutenant Lance will contact us if he's got any leads on her."

Diggle nodded in understanding.

Oliver started the van and the radio suddenly began playing. Diggle tried stopping the radio but he couldn't turn it off.

A song was playing but someone in the background of the song was yelling.

"Turn it up." Oliver said as he kept staring at the radio, Diggle immediately turned it up.

"_Oliver_!" The voice was sounding scared. Oliver and Diggle couldn't really hear every word that was yelled as the song kept on playing. "_Oliver, please help-"_

"Is that Felicity?!" Diggle said in shock as he met Oliver's eyes. Oliver nodded yes. His eyes were showing off pain.

"_Oliver.. I'm.."_

Oliver started hitting the radio. "Why can't we hear her."

"_Diggle, someone.. you've gotta help me." _

Her voice drifted off a little again.

Diggle started changing the radio signal until he heard her voice again.

"_I'm so scared.." _Suddenly she started crying and Oliver closed his eyes. He didn't want to picture her crying.

"_I managed to get to a computer-" _A silence, "_but that's not the point.. they took my blood, I don't know what's happening." _They could hear her hiccupping in between her words.

"Come on, Felicity.. tell us where you are.." Oliver whispered.

"_I'm in a huge building and I don't hear any traffic so it must be somewhere far away from the living world.. I don't know.." _Felicity hesitantly said as she tried finding the right words to describe her surroundings. Oliver was glad she knew to tell them what her surroundings were.

"Diggle, you hear her?" Oliver then asked.

Diggle nodded and opened a laptop that had been hiding in a desk. He opened a program Felicity always used and typed in the descriptions Felicity gave.

"_It's also a very ruined building.. shattered glass, broken walls, lightning is weak.. and the smell is.. I don't know what it is.." _ She stopped talking for a split second there. "_I think someone is coming." _Panic raise in her voice.

"Felicity, stay calm please." Oliver said to the radio, knowing she wouldn't hear her but hoping she would know.

The song ended playing and the van became quiet except for heavy breathing being heard.

"Dig, is your elbow hurting again?" Oliver asked as he turned to Diggle.

"That's not me breathing."

Both snapped back to the radio. Even though the song was gone, Felicity was still there.

"_If- if I.. if I don't make it out alive.. please don't kill me.." _She let out in a shaky voice.

"_What are you doing?!" _Another voice was heard. Grayson's voice.

"_I-.." _

But Felicity couldn't continue on talking. Her sentence was killed off by her screams in pain. Then the screams disappeared. The connection was gone.

"Felicity!" Diggle yelled as he slammed the radio. Oliver hit the steering wheel in anger and then grabbed the laptop from Diggle.

"Where is she, Dig?!"

"She never gave us exact data Oliver. We can't do anything with that program right now. Not with the information she has given us."

Oliver's gaze dropped. "What did she say again.." he said out loud as he rubbed his forehead. "Ruined building, weak lightning-"

"And she said something about the smell, but she couldn't describe it.." Diggle shook his head a little before finishing his thoughts. "Oliver.. she is at the old huge storage place where we found the gamma-butyrolacton."

"Don't tell me she's been there all along.." Oliver slowly said. Had they been that close?

"I don't know Oliver, but we have to go there now."

* * *

As Oliver drove the van as fast as possible, Diggle was thinking of the situation. Had it really been Felicity shooting at him or had that been his imagination? Did she have a doppelgänger or did someone copy her.. was that why they needed her blood? He couldn't quite fit the pieces together.

Oliver drove through red lights and had to avoid driving into a woman crossing the streets. Therefor he hit his brakes and swung onto the sidewalk. He could see the woman shriek and sigh in relief when they passed her. For once, he didn't think of the safety of the city and its people, right now, Felicity was all he could think about. Diggle snapped him out of his thoughts though.

"If Felicity is locked up in the building.. then who was it shooting at me and taking Laurel?" Diggle asked.

Oliver turned left onto the main road.

"Are you even sure it was Felicity shooting you after all?"

"_She _talked and looked like Felicity.. but in the beginning she was acting quite strangely innocent.. until something snapped and she attacked me. I feel like we have to be prepared. I don't think Felicity is in real danger.. I think she _is_ the danger."

Oliver clenched his teeth. As much as he wanted Felicity to be the Felicity they knew so well.. Diggle was right, they had to be prepared. But _being _prepared wasn't going to be the only thing they had to think about. He knew well enough that if they bumped into the brainwashed Felicity.. he had to turn off his humanity somehow, because he was afraid that his weakness for her were going to get Diggle and himself killed. And he didn't want to let that happen. He had to be as focused as possible.

It was itching and killing him though. As he thought of trying to focus in the act, all he could actually focus on was Felicity. He knew that the moment he would see her all his feelings for her would rush back to him and hit him like crazy. He didn't know if he could really handle that. To himself, he had admitted he loved her, but to her, he never had the nerve to tell her. She had no clue at all and that frightened him. Had she really given up on him, on his love?

Oliver shrugged.

And what if they survived this all, he really didn't know how to tell her how he felt. He didn't know how to act toward her without making the entire situation uncomfortable. If he told her he loved her.. would she be willing to spend the rest of her life with him, to love him as much as he loved her. He was extremely scared for the answers to the questions. But he knew he had to know the answers in order for him to move on. Even if she would actually reject him, he'd be willing to escape the city and act like he'd never met the beautiful blonde. If that meant keeping her safe and making sure she didn't feel like standing in an uncomfortable position after rejecting him, he'd really do that.

As Diggle looked at Oliver, he knew he had to be careful. As much as he trusted his young partner, he knew Oliver had his weaknesses for the beautiful blonde and he knew he had to keep reminding him to stay in the act and don't fall down because of those weaknesses. As much as Diggle loved Felicity too, he had seen the look on her face when she shot him and he didn't want that to happen to him again only because she was _Felicity. _He was actually praying it hadn't been Felicity all along, that she had never been the one to attack him, but in his guts he knew Felicity wasn't her normal self and that it was her. He also knew that if they wanted to bring some sense into her, they had to play it hard.

It didn't mean they had to harm her, in fact, they probably had to talk some sense into her. Make her feel like she's vulnerable and nothing but vulnerable. In the end, it would probably hurt her feelings but at least that'd be better than being actually hurt.

Diggle looked back at the road in front of them.

"We're here." He said suddenly.

Oliver turned right onto the muddy road.

They'd arrived at the destination.

* * *

"My daughter was kidnapped between six thirty and seven thirty. I last called her at six thirty and I stood at her apartment at seven thirty. We are also well aware of the fact that Felicity Smoak has been reported as missing also. I believe this is one case. That's why we have to combine the two cases and work with more men in the field." Lieutenant Lance said as he sat on his desk and spoke to a filled office of police officers.

"But sir.. Felicity Smoak has been gone for over 24 hours.. you're daughter on the other hand.. has been gone for.. let's say.. two."

Lance stood up and walked over to the young police officer who had spoken.

"What are you trying to say, son?" He said as he stood just inches away from the young officer who flinched when Lance had spoken.

"Nothing sir." The young officer let out. He sighed when Lance turned around to sit on his desk again.

"It's been very serene in Starling City. But now, there are two young women missing and we're going to make sure they make it home alive and safe." Lance paused to look at the faces of his men, however, they didn't seem amused. Lance had to make it a bit more interesting and so he begun again. "The man who threatened Oliver Queen and eventually died at Queen Consolidated was actually a part of the group who kidnapped Felicity Smoak. The man, known as Waylon, died because of a chip that triggered his body to shut off. Don't you all realize how dangerous these people are who have Felicity Smoak and perhaps Laurel? Isn't here anyone who wants to catch these bastards or are you all just having this job to eat donuts in your car 24/7? Because if that's the reason, you might as well leave the room now."

No one moved. Most gazes of the men dropped, some men swallowed. This satisfied Lance.

"Where do we start?" It was the young officer talking again. Lance was glad the officer understood the situation now.

Lance crossed his arms and inhaled deeply before answering that question.

"We've had a hard time trying to find Felicity Smoak, therefor we are going to narrow down Laurel. I believe she has her phone on her. I want a group of three to find out where her phone is at. I'll give you her number and you can go to the second floor and take the media room."

Three men took a step forward and Lance handed one of them a piece of paper with the phone number. He then motioned them out of the room.

"I hope you're also very well aware of the closed case on two of our colleagues who've been brutally murdered. You may know by now that Waylon was the one who killed them. But before him, we initially thought it was Grayson Sanchez. I don't know if this name has ever come to your attention, but we believe he's been involved in the kidnapping of Felicity Smoak and thus Laurel. He's been MIA for a while now, while he knew he had to stay on the radar. That's why I want the rest of you to find other leads on Grayson and perhaps miss Smoak. We will hear it from the media room if and when there's a hit with Laurel's cellphone. Thereupon, we will observe it further."

All policemen nodded but stayed put. Lance sighed. He stretched an arm and pointed at the door.

"Now go on. You know what to do."

And the room cleared.

* * *

**Please be kind enough to let me know what you thought of this chapter and perhaps the story itself. **

**AND if not for the fanfic then please review something on here about the #Olicitykiss / new promo ! I like to hear your excitement/thoughts about it!**

**Thank you for reading!**


	26. Chapter 26

**Stephen at the FanExpo panel, oh c'mon, what is life? Forever thanking the person for screaming Felicity's name at him when he asked himself what he wanted to see Oliver do someday.**

**Here's chapter 26. Hope you like it. I had a hard time writing it as Felicity is so OOC because she's a freak now.. lol**

**CW OWNS IT ALL.**

* * *

Oliver and Diggle were both geared up. Diggle had his guns ready and Oliver his bow and arrows. They both had their earpieces in, in case they had to split up. They had parked the van in the middle of the muddy road so if anyone in any car wanted to flee the scene, it couldn't pass. The road was too small and only accessible for one vehicle at a time.

As they walked to the old ruined building, they observed their surroundings. It didn't seem like anyone was present though. It was utterly quiet and there were no other vehicles to be seen than the van they had driven. However, they were convinced someone was going to be inside the building. Perhaps not Felicity herself, but at least someone who was willing to kill both men.

The door to the building was fully opened, but it was dark inside. Nevertheless, they didn't use any flashlight to guide them. It was better if they made their way in, unnoticed. They slowly made their way through the long hall, stepping over bricks and glass to avoid unnecessary sounds. Even though Lieutenant Lance had cleared the grand hall from the drug plants, the smell of it was still evident. Oliver and Diggle tried to avoid breathing through their noses, so the smell of the drugs wouldn't give them headaches.

Quietly they arrived at the doors to the grand hall were the plants used to be. Oliver crouched down and peered through a hole to look around the hall. It was completely empty. Diggle opened the doors slowly and stepped inside.

"_Clear_.." He whispered to reassure Oliver there was no one to be seen.

Oliver followed Diggle inside and both men looked around the hall. It was really empty and as far as they could see, there were no other doors in this space.

Oliver started walking across the hall and looked up and down to see if he could find a hidden entrance. Diggle noticed Oliver searching and he started walking too. Diggle started knocking on the walls to hear if it sounded hollow anywhere.

Suddenly Oliver stopped his steps. He kneeled down and grabbed something from the ground. Diggle stopped too and waited for Oliver to reveal what he'd found. Oliver looked closely to the object and then showed it to Diggle.

"It's an earring. Laurel's earring." Oliver spoke softly.

"Are you sure?" Diggle asked.

"Yes. I remember her wearing these." Oliver replied.

Oliver wrapped his fingers around the earring to feel the object and then shoved it in one of his pockets. Diggle made his way to Oliver and looked down at the ground.

"They must be underground. There's no other way." Diggle stated as he kneeled down beside a pile of bricks. As he tried removing one, he noticed all of the bricks moved. It appeared all the bricks were attached to each other. Oliver kneeled down also and helped Diggle to remove the pile. Both men groaned as they pushed the pile aside. A black hole into the ground showed. Diggle grabbed for his phone and turned on his flashlight. As he shone into the black hole, a staircase appeared.

"And I thought our lair was well hidden." Diggle said with an amused look on his face.

Oliver placed both hands on either side of the hole and lowered himself into it, his feet slowly finding the stairs. When his feet touched the stairs he let go and quietly walked down. Diggle followed him. After a long while the stairs finally ended and Diggle turned off the flashlight as there were already lights on revealing where they were. They were standing in something that seemed like an industrial place. Huge machines were filling the place and the smell of burnt wood was present.

"Oliver Queen and his sidekick. What a privilege." The voice came out of nowhere, but they could recognize it anywhere now. It was Grayson speaking.

Oliver immediately grabbed a bow and aimed around. Diggle had his gun ready to shoot. Grayon's voice was echoing through the place and they couldn't tell where it was coming from.

"I'd like you to lower your weapons. Only that way I'll talk to you."

Oliver clenched his teeth but lowered his bow. Nonetheless, he made sure he was able to shoot if necessary. Diggle lowered his gun as well but also kept it tightly wrapped in his hands.

Sounds of footsteps on metal was heard now and Grayson appeared on top of a machine. He was smiling widely and had his arms open as to welcome Oliver and Diggle into his house. However, this was not Grayson's house and there was actually no need to smile. Grayson noticed the tensed faces of the men standing on the ground beneath him and his smile faded as quickly as it had appeared.

"I'm not happy to see you either to be honest." He began, directing his sentence to Oliver as if Diggle wasn't actually there. "You were supposed to be dead by now. But I believe you have more than nine lives because you're still here. I can't say that about your father or your friend Tommy or your mother." Grayson mentioned Oliver's mother with a little chuckle.

Rage welled up inside Oliver as soon as he heard Grayson saying that. In a sudden reaction he pulled up his bow and shot an arrow at Grayson's leg. However, Grayson managed to stop the arrow from going into his skin by simply making it look like he'd caught the arrow. Oliver and Diggle frowned. They couldn't believe Grayson had just stopped an arrow like it was nothing.

"I didn't know that was still a touchy subject, Oliver." Grayson said as he let the arrow fall onto the ground. Diggle watched the arrow hit the ground. Oliver shifted a little as he lowered his bow again.

"Your mother must have been proud of you and your hard work. Not only as Oliver the CEO of Queen Consolidated but also as the Arrow. She knew, didn't see?" Grayson asked, but without any expectation of being provided with an answer. "You see. I knew you were the Arrow all along too. I think it's funny nobody else but your mother found out by themselves. It's quite obvious if you look at the puzzle closely. Oliver Queen returns from being stuck on an island for five years and suddenly the green hood appears. And the green hood mostly appears when you, Oliver Queen, are in the neighborhood."

"How did you find out?" Oliver asked as he became annoyed with the second.

"I was friends with.. _how may I call him_.. your acquaintance. I believe you don't consider him your friend anymore. Which I absolutely understand as he killed your own mother in front of your eyes."

"_Slade.._" Oliver whispered a little too loud to himself.

"Exactly him." Grayson said with a grin as soon as he heard Slade's name. "Well, you may not be friends with him anymore but I still am, even though he's locked up somewhere far away where nobody can come close to him, I still am loyal to him, because I'm his friend."

Grayson rubbed his hands as he let himself lean against something of the machine.

"You betrayed Slade, my friend-"

"I never betrayed Slade." Oliver immediately said back, not liking where this conversation was going.

"_You _betrayed Slade and I will never." Grayson snapped back. He swallowed and continued on talking. "Before you managed to get the Mirakuru out of him and defeat him, Slade and I had a little talk about what I could do to help him if anything was going to happen to him. It was a great and strong talk and he made it all clear for me."

Grayson crossed his arm and got an amused look on his face as he looked down at Oliver and Diggle who still hadn't moved an inch. His amused look disappeared again when he continued on talking.

"Shadow is dead because of you. Slade wanted you to pay for it. However, Slade never got the chance to make you really pay for it. Yes. He killed your mother. Yes. He made sure your life was a living hell for a while.. but his ultimate plan was to kill the woman you loved. Am I right?"

This time Grayson paused for a moment to wait for an answer, but he didn't get any. He sighed and started talking again.

"But he never got the chance to, so he asked me to finish it for him. You know, I never thought of just killing your girl. I actually wanted to take it up another notch."

"You can hurt me and kill me, but leave my family and friends out of this. They don't deserve this, I do." Oliver suddenly said. He could feel Diggle's eyes burning in his back, but at this moment he didn't care. He didn't want his partner to get hurt or to be killed and he didn't want anything to happen to either Felicity or Laurel.

"Oh, I won't kill you, my friend." Grayson answered. "But I have someone else who's willing to kill you. Slade left me one little present before he went off to be defeated. He left me one shot of the Mirakuru. Of course I could have injected myself with it, but my fellow partner and I discovered my body couldn't handle it. It was then I thought of injecting someone else with it and after a couple of tests with her blood it turned out she could handle the Mirakuru quite well."

"If you didn't inject yourself with the Mirakuru, how can you be so fast and strong?" Diggle asked.

"My Mirakuru patient produced some pretty decent blood. I used that to fill my body with it. It made me stronger but it didn't kill me." Grayson answered before returning his focus back to Oliver.

"Remember the message you got through the radio, Oliver? It turns out my Mirakuru patient is quite the actress." Grayson said with a little laugh.

Another pair of footsteps were heard. Someone else was climbing up the machine. Oliver's eyes widened as soon as he saw who was climbing up the machine to stand next to Grayson.

"_Felicity.." _He whispered.

She was wearing a black suit of leather. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail and she wasn't wearing her glasses. She was geared up as well and even though she was still small, she looked stronger than ever.

"What did you do to her?" Diggle let out in shock.

"Simple. We injected her with the Mirakuru." Grayson answered.

"Felicity. Can you hear me?" Oliver yelled directly to Felicity, but she didn't flinch when hearing his voice.

"She can hear you , son. She just doesn't know who you really are to her." Grayson said in reaction to Oliver's attempt on getting Felicity's attention.

Despite Grayson's explanation, it was Diggle who called out her name now.

"Felicity. It's me. Diggle." He yelled.

Felicity turned her head and looked down at Diggle. Diggle simply smiled at her but she didn't seem to find the effort to smile back. She started moving and jumped off the machine. She slowly walked over to Diggle and stopped just inches away from her. Diggle tried whispering her name, but as soon as he wanted to, Felicity grabbed him by the throat and squeezed it shut. She then slammed him to the ground. Quickly, Diggle started gasping for air as he held onto his throat.

In the meanwhile, Oliver had been aiming an arrow at Felicity, but hadn't had the nerve to shoot her. She simply turned around to face him. She looked him in the eyes and the only thing he could do was look back into the beautiful eyes he'd missed. Because even though she didn't look quite the same and she acted different, he could still see the girl he had fallen in love with.

She took a couple of steps closer to him and placed a hand against his chest. His hand started trembling, thereupon his bow started shaking and he lowered it. He looked down at her hand and all he wanted to do was touch her back, but he was nailed to the ground and he felt paralyzed. Suddenly Felicity's other hand moved and something stung him in the arm. Oliver looked down at his arm and saw a needle.

"_Felicity.." _He let out in surprise and shock.

Then the room started spinning and before he could say anything else to her, everything became dark.

* * *

**Damn it Felicity. You ruined Oliver's perfect moment with you.**

**Please be kind enough to review! Thank you all for your support :)  
**


	27. Chapter 27

**First of all.. sorry for the lack of updates. I didn't feel like writing, though that is definitely NOT an excuse. Have you all seen the latest promo btw? The one with the 'italian' and 'I'm multitasking' stuff. DYING. **

**Anyway. It's chapter 27 already. Never thought I'd come this far (and I'm not done yet). I still appreciate reviews because they stimulate me to write more chapters.. so please, do review ;) (or favorite/follow)**

**CW OWNS IT ALL.**

* * *

His head was throbbing and he still felt paralyzed. It then hit him what had happened. Oliver snapped his eyes open. He wanted to jump up too, but he noticed he was sitting on a chair. His arms were on his back and he could feel tie-wraps slightly cutting his wrists. But besides that, his legs could move freely. Oliver clenched his teeth as he tried wrenching his wrists out of the tie-wraps. He'd done this before, so he knew he could get out of them.

"Great man, you're awake." It was Diggle.

Oliver looked to his right to see Diggle on a chair as well. He was faintly smiling, but he seemed hurt.

"What happened?" Oliver asked.

"Well.. Felicity attacked me and drugged you. She and this other woman, I assume her name is Paige because Grayson called her that, tied us to these chairs."

"Are there more?"

"As far as I'm concerned it's only Grayson, Paige and Felicity as Waylon is dead."

Oliver looked around. They were still in the industrial hall. The big machines were rising up to the ceiling. Lights were flickering on and off. He looked up to the machine Grayson and Felicity had been standing on, but there was no one watching down on them now.

"Where are they?" Oliver asked as he turned his face to Diggle again.

Diggle was desperately trying to get out of the tie-wraps too.

"I don't know. But I think they'll be back soon." Diggle said as he roughly moved his hands and arms and twisted his upper body in every angle possible.

"Dig. Sit still. Only try to wrench your wrists. Breathe and focus. If someone comes in, they don't want to see we're trying to escape."

Diggle nodded in understanding and positioned himself properly on the chair. Oliver focused on the wall in front of him and breathed slowly as he started wrenching his wrists again.

"Oliver. What are we going to do with Felicity." Diggle said with hesitation, not wanting to scare off his partner, but he knew Oliver was well aware of the condition Felicity was in. She'd just attacked him like it was nothing and drugged Oliver without blushing, it concerned him.

Oliver groaned a little. "I don't know, Dig.. But this hate, this violence she's coping with.. It reminds me so much of Slade and that does not mean any good. She's been brainwashed and I don't know what Grayson has said to her that has made her so upset and angry.. It seems like she has some sort of vendetta she has to take care off."

A long silence followed Oliver's words until Diggle broke it.

"We can't safe her in this condition. But I've been thinking, what if the cure is here, somewhere. There must be one." Diggle said.

"The Mirakuru is a powerful weapon, why take that away with a cure. Slade was fully against it, I'm not sure Grayson is with it either." Oliver stated.

"Grayson told us he wanted to inject himself with the Mirakuru at first. If I would inject myself with it, I'd like to have a cure by my side in case things go wrong. What if Grayson did the same.. I know, that in the end he injected Felicity with it.. but that doesn't have to mean the cure isn't somewhere here anymore."

"You're right, Diggle.." Oliver said slowly.

"So what's the plan?" Diggle asked.

"You're going on a search for the cure.. I'm going to take down Grayson and let him know he has failed this city." Oliver said quietly.

Diggle slightly smiled and turned his focus back to the tie-wraps.

Then out of nowhere Oliver jumped up. He'd managed to free himself. He rubbed his wrists as he walked over to Diggle. He crouched down and helped him. Within seconds, Diggle was free as well.

"That took longer than expected." Felicity said as she walked from behind one of the big machines.

Oliver and Diggle stiffened as Felicity walked up to them. The clicking sound of her heels echoed through the space, against the metallic machines. Her ponytail danced behind her and her arms softly swung with the rhythm of her steps. She stopped just a few feet away from the two men who were still looking at her in disbelieve.

"What? Surprised? Surprised that I waited for you to free yourself?" She said with a chuckle without thinking of being answered.

"Felicity.. what is wrong with you?" Diggle let out as he took a step closer to her.

"Don't." She said as she raised her hand. "Don't come any closer."

Felicity dropped her hand again and Diggle sighed loudly in frustration.

"We are not going to hurt you." Oliver said in reaction to Felicity.

Felicity turned to Oliver and laughed. "You already did hurt me. I'm just here to return the favor." Felicity took a couple of steps closer to Oliver. She was standing so close, he could feel her breath on his skin. Oliver was staring at her. He had his teeth clenched together and he couldn't move. She continued on talking. "Oliver Queen.. you may be calling yourself the Arrow, the hero of Starling City, but you're nothing like that-"

"Felicity.." Diggle begged in between her words. However, she waved her hand and he shut up.

"You are poison to this city."

Diggle couldn't stand it anymore. He was getting sick and tired of her, especially now when she was throwing words at Oliver and he noticed the stone cold look Oliver was getting on his face. If anyone else but Felicity would have said those words to Oliver, it would have been different. It wouldn't have hurt him. But somehow, Felicity always managed to get through Oliver. Even now, when she wasn't even her normal self.

Diggle breathed in slowly and went for it. Felicity didn't see it coming and Diggle took her down to the ground. Oliver's eyes widened a bit.

"Go!"

Diggle then shouted at Oliver as he tried to keep Felicity to the ground. She was moving hysterically, but Diggle had a good grip on her. For now.

"Go!"

Diggle repeated as Oliver was still standing in the same spot.

"Now!"

Finally Oliver snapped out of his own world and ran off.

The same moment Oliver ran off, was the moment Felicity managed to throw Diggle off of her. Diggle fell to the ground but got up very quickly. Felicity got up too and ran up to Diggle. She dug when he tried hitting her, then slammed her shoulder and head against his chest and threw him over her shoulder. Diggle hit the ground hard and rolled onto his side. As he lay on the ground he immediately reached for the knife that was still in his pocket.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Felicity said with irritation in her voice.

Diggle glanced up and looked right into the gun she was holding.

"You met my friend before right?" Felicity asked with a smirk. "In fact, my friend shot you in the shoulder."

"So that _was_ you?" Diggle spoke with anger.

"Who else?" Felicity said with a little confusion. "I took off my mask, didn't I?" She paused for a second. "You didn't honestly believe that wasn't me back there right? The Mirakuru can do a lot of things, but cloning isn't in the package." She said while shaking her head in disbelieve. "But if you want to, I can show you that it was truly me."

She focused the gun on his shoulder and placed her finger against the trigger. Diggle slowly got up and raised his hands. The gun followed his movements.

"Why would you want to hurt me again? It's me. Diggle. We are partners.. but most importantly.. we are friends. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

Felicity lowered her gun a little. She seemed confused. However, the confusion was gone within seconds. She raised her gun again and spoke.

"We were never partners let alone friends. I don't know where you got that information from?" She cocked her head a little.

Diggle frowned. "Are you joking right now?" He asked silently.

She stayed quiet and realization hit him.

"You're not…" He slowly started. "Felicity.. what do you even know of me?"

"Don't play games with me!"

She shot him. Right in the shoulder she'd shot him in before. Diggle groaned in pain and fell down on one knee. He bit his lip and grabbed his shoulder with his hand to comfort it a little. Blood was rushing out the bullet wound, but he wasn't caring about that right now.

"What do you know of me?!" Diggle asked again.

Felicity exhaled slowly and impatiently.

"You're the Arrow his sidekick." She snapped. "You killed dozens of people. Innocent people. You tortured Slade. You tortured Grayson. You tortured everyone but yourself. So right now, it's my job to torture you.. and indirectly torture Oliver Queen."

Her finger went for the trigger again.

"I never tortured Slade nor Grayson. Those are lies. Grayson is telling you lies, Felicity."

"No, shut up. You know nothing about Grayson."

"But I know a lot about you. I know that this is not who you really are. You are not a killer. You are an IT girl and you worked at the IT department at Queen Consolidated until.."

"Stop it!" She yelled as she interrupted him. "You know nothing about me either. I have always worked side by side with Grayson. I never worked at an IT department."

"Let me prove it to you." Diggle slowly said.

His hand reached down into his pocket. He noticed she moved the gun and was now focusing it on his pocket. He glanced up.

"I'm just reaching for my phone."

He slowly pulled his phone out and unlocked it immediately. Felicity stared at him as he opened the photo album. He scrolled down a little and found a photo. A photo in which Felicity was working behind a computer. She had her hair tugged behind her ears. She was smiling widely and Oliver was standing next to her. Smiling down. In the back was the QC sign visible which automaticall meant the photo had been taken in the building.

Diggle swallowed. Seeing this photo right now was actually hurting him. The photo was showing a light, rare and extremely funny moment. Felicity had rambled something odd about Oliver's muscles and at that moment Oliver couldn't help but laugh uncontrollably, which automatically had made Felicity laugh too. After the outburst of laughter, Diggle'd decided to take a pic of the two. He didn't know why, but he'd just wanted to at the moment. Now he was glad he had.

Suddenly, Diggle snapped out of his thoughts. That moment was over and now he had something else to take care off. He then placed the phone on the ground and shoved it toward Felicity. Felicity slowly crouched down and grabbed the phone. She looked down at the photo. The hand in which her gun was in, started shaking and she lowered it slightly.

Diggle couldn't tell what Felicity was feeling right now.. _if _she was feeling anything. She was just standing there, silently observing the photo. And then all of a sudden, she started shaking her head.

"No.." She whispered. "No.." A little louder. "This doesn't prove anything. This photo could be fake."

Upon her words, she threw away the phone. It hit one of the machines and shattered into pieces onto the ground. Diggle looked at it in awe. He'd expected anything but that reaction. Felicity seemed out of breath. She stared at the shattered pieces of the phone. She'd used all her strength to throw away such a small device that not only did it break the phone.. it broke her a little too.

Diggle saw an opportunity. Felicity seemed so focused on the phone and herself that she completely forgot about him. Thus, he slowly got up on his feet and moved toward her. Step by step. Until he was close enough to grab her by her shoulders. However, she reacted in no time and pushed him away with full force. He got slammed into a metallic plate. Diggle growled loudly and blinked a few times before turning back to her direction, only to see she was gone.

"Felicity?!" He yelled as he stumbled up.

However, he got no answer.

"Damn it." He said as he closed his eyes and leaned against the metallic plate. His shoulder was hurting and bleeding and his lungs were kind of failing him. As he gasped for air a little he also ripped off a piece of his shirt to wrap around his wound. He briefly opened his eyes and tried wrapping the fabric around his shoulder. After multiple attempts the fabric finally stayed in place. His shoulder was throbbing, but it was his last concern right now. Diggle looked around the industrial hall, pushed himself away from the metallic plate and walked toward the nearest door.

* * *

Oliver was running through a long hall. He'd found his bow and arrows lying on a desk and he was extremely relieved about that. At least something was working along. He turned a corner and slowed his running rhythm as he noticed Grayson was standing at the end of the hall. He was talking to a woman. Oliver remembered Diggle had mentioned something about a woman named Paige. This was probably her then.

Grayson and Paige were talking, though it seemed more like fighting. She was raising her hands and she had a flustered look on her face. Grayson, however, was standing oddly still and only his facial expression showed he wasn't pleased with whatever was going on. Paige threw her hands in the air one more time before wheeling off into a room. Grayson rolled his eyes, sighed and turned around into Oliver's direction. He raised his eyesbrows in surprise when he met Oliver's gaze.i

"I thought you'd be dead by now." Grayson said.

"Alive as can be." Oliver answered as he immediately placed an arrow on his bow and aimed it at Grayson. He wanted the man dead. Though he knew it wasn't going to be justice. This world really didn't need another psycho like Grayson and right now, he felt like there was no choice to make.

"Where is the cure?" Oliver said as he exhaled slowly.

"Like I'm going to tell you, Oliver."

"So there is a cure?"

Grayson clenched his teeth. He'd said too much.

Oliver let go of the arrow and it hit Grayson in the leg. Grayson smirked and pulled the arrow out.

"Won't hurt me." He said as he threw the arrow away.

Oliver watched the arrow dancing to the floor before going completely still. Oliver thought back to the moment he'd walked into his apartment and someone, dressed in black, came out of his bedroom and attacked him. Now he knew who the person in black had been.

"It was you in my apartment. You stabbed a knife through Felicity's photo in my closet." Oliver let out. "I shot an arrow at you then.. but you pulled it out like you did just now.. and you fell of my balcony. Yet you never died. How?"

"You'll never know." Grayson asked with a chuckle.

"I can live with that." Oliver snapped back.

"Grayson." It was Paige. It seemed like she wanted to ask Grayson something. Grayson got distracted and quickly looked at Paige.

Oliver grabbed two arrows and placed them both on the bow.

"You have failed this city!" He said loudly as he aimed and let go of the two arrows.

Grayson was too late to react. One arrow hit him in the chest, the other went straight through his head and he fell down with a loud thud.

Paige let out a high shriek and hurried herself over to Grayson's body. She growled in a flair of emotion as she touched his cold hand. She then got up and ran toward Oliver. She was ready to attack him. But not ready for the arrow boring in her chest. She gasped for air and fell down on her knees. Then her body weakened entirely and she dropped herself completely onto the ground.

Oliver looked at the lifeless bodies in front of him. He sighed deeply and turned his back to them. He'd have to worry about that mess later. Right now he had to go back to Diggle and Felicity.

He had to show Felicity he was everything but poison, even though he wasn't completely sure of that himself.

* * *

**Oh.. what did Felicity realize as she looked at the photo? I don't know. And whoa.. Grayson and Paige... ;)**

**Please review. Even if your review contains just ONE word describing my fanfiction.. I'd really appreciate it! Feels like I'm begging you, but really..**

**Anyway, thank you for reading again :)**


	28. Chapter 28

**Your responses to the previous chapter were amazing. Thank you all so much! Your opinions are so extremely important to me. You know, you really don't have to leave a super long review, like one word describing my fanfic is enough. But it just feels great knowing that at least someone likes the fic. I mainly write for you guys. So reviews, comments, ideas about and for the fic are more than welcome. **

**And my gift from me to you right now is this chapter. **

**Thanks again.**

**CW OWNS IT ALL.**

* * *

Diggle closed the door behind him, locked it and turned on the lights, he found himself in a lab. It was a large lab. Everything was whitened, polished and arranged. He walked to the nearest desk and sat down on a chair. On the desk were books, notebooks, little machines, syringes and blood bags. Diggle looked at the machine in front of him. It was pumping blood and another liquid, however he couldn't tell what the other liquid was. He figured it'd something to do with the Mirakuru.

He grabbed a notebook that lay on top of a pile of other books and opened it. The pages were filled with notes. Notes that had been taken care off. Everything was written down as precise as possible, with time, dates and names. The handwriting was also very readable and he figured it was Paige's handwriting. This must have been her lab.

Diggle read the notes briefly. His finger trailed along every word. Then suddenly a name caught his attention. Diggle read the notes out loud.

"_We took a sample of Felicity Smoak's blood and added a drop of the Mirakuru. Her blood reacted well to it and thus we believe she can be injected herself."_

"_Felicity Smoak has gotten the injection. Only unconsciousness occurred."_

"_It took her more than four hours to wake up. Physically you can tell she's been injected, however, mentally she seems stable. She reacts like she's been reacting before. Currently, she's in transition. We've played her some audio she's familiar with and we can tell anger and hurt is triggering her."_

Diggle frowned and flipped the page.

"_Apparently the audio has worked. At the moment she's attached to the BSM. This machine which will send false information to her brain and will save the info in her long term memory. The strong, fast and full function of her long term memory is another side effect of the new made Mirakuru Felicity Smoak has been injected with."_

Diggle swallowed as he looked over his shoulder and saw a chair positioned against the wall. A large machine was standing beside it and attached to the machine was some sort of helmet. Diggle realized the helmet was the BSM. The machine Felicity had been brainwashed with. Diggle turned back to the words in the notebook and started searching for more relevant notes and information.

"_The BSM worked. We asked Felicity Smoak numerous questions and we can now state she has saved all the information needed to forget who she was before. Only the MC can undo everything."_

"MC?" Diggle whispered.

He read as fast as he could but MC wasn't mentioned on the page again. Diggle sighed and went to the next page and the next page only to notice they were blank. Apparently, Paige hadn't written on it yet.

"Damn it." Diggle said as he threw the notebook to the side. It fell down with a loud thud just underneath an UV light. Diggle stood up and started pacing around the room. He stopped when he noticed the pages of the notebook were changing color underneath the UV light.

"Of course." Diggle whispered.

An old little trick he should have thought about. You use invisble ink and only fire or UV light can light up the words on the paper. So whenever someone is snooping around in your notes, he or she won't find the most important things as easy as possible. Diggle had seen this before with Oliver's list he supposedly had gotten from his father. The names on the list had been written down with invisible ink and fire had made them appear.

Diggle grinned, ran over to the notebook and read what appeared on the pages.

"_The previous Mirakuru Cure worked, however, for the new Mirakuru we created, we will be needing a new cure. We have observed the newer form of the Mirakuru and adjusted the Mirakuru Cure. Our rat reacted the worst on the Mirakuru, but after the injection of the adjusted Mirakuru cure the rat went back to its old being. The MC works just fine."_

Diggle's heart began to pound faster. He had found the one thing Grayson nor Paige wanted him to find. A way to the Mirakuru cure. Diggle slowly sat down on the chair again and began reading.

_"The MC needs the following. Side note: everything has to be done perfectly as how it's written down.."_

* * *

"Diggle?!" Oliver yelled. He was back in the grand industrial hall but Diggle was nowhere to be seen anymore. Oliver looked around the hall and suddenly noticed blood on the floor and against one of the machines. He walked over to the blood and crouched down. He exhaled loudly in frustration and stood back up.

"It's Diggle's blood, but don't worry. He's fine."

Oliver turned around immediately to see Felicity standing behind him. However, she was not alone. Laurel was standing next to Felicity. Laurel's hands were cuffed and she had duct tape over her mouth. She looked like a mess. Her hair was all sloppy and she had a tear stained face. Her clothes were ripped and several bruises were visible. Oliver met Laurel's pleading eyes and in reaction to that he clenched his bow in his hand as tight as possible. He couldn't stand seeing Laurel hurt.

Slowly, Felicity pulled out a gun. She twirled the gun in her hand before placing it against the side of Laurel's head. Laurel closed her eyes as she felt the cold metal pressing against her skull.

"Don't hurt her, Felicity. I know you don't want to hurt her." Oliver quietly said.

By his words he wanted to reassure Laurel all was going to be fine, but Laurel was shaking uncontrollably and he could tell she believed nothing was going to be fine, not when Felicity was in this condition.

"I want to hurt her, it's you who doesn't want her to be hurt." Felicity snapped.

"Yes." Oliver replied back. "Yes, she means a lot to me, a lot to plenty of people. So don't take this out on Laurel, on her family and other friends. Take this out on me instead."

"I can't. I'm supposed to do this. He told us so." Felicity said as she placed her finger against the trigger.

"Who? Slade? He's locked up, away from this world. He won't harm you if you stop with what you're doing." Oliver slowly said.

"Locked up because of you!" Felicity yelled.

"No. Because of you. You gave Slade the cure. Because of you, I was able to defeat Slade."

"No. I wouldn't betray Slade like that, ever." Felicity said while raising her voice.

Oliver suddenly saw something moving behind Felicity. He inhaled deeply and looked back at Felicity and Laurel.

"Felicity, I promise you. You will not betray Slade if you let Laurel go."

"Shut up! Grayson told me that I would definitely betray Slade if I quit now. I need to fulfil Slade's dying wish and that is for me to kill the woman you love." Felicity said with full anger.

Oliver exhaled slowly and shifted on his feet. "Then you're pointing the gun at the wrong person."

Felicity frowned at that. "What are you talking about?"

"You should be pointing the gun at yourself if you want to kill the woman I love."

Felicity froze for a second. Her gaze bored into him.

"No.. not at myself.. at Laurel."

"No." Oliver yelled. "No, Felicity, I love you. I always have, but I was too stubborn to admit."

"You're lying." Felicity quietly said with hesitation.

Oliver frowned a little and looked at her with concern.

"I would never lie to you, Felicity Smoak. I would never lie to the woman who's helped me fix a computer with bullet holes. I would never lie to the woman who accepted me more than ever. I would never lie to the woman who's perfect the way she is. I would never lie to _my girl."_

Another movement in the background. But Oliver tried to stay focused on Felicity.

"But you just said you care about Laurel.."

"I care about Laurel as a friend." Oliver paused. "I don't know what you think of me or what Grayson has told you about me.. but the truth is. I love you and I feel stupid that this has finally made me realize I had to tell you. I wish it could have gone differently, but it didn't. We're here now and you deserve to know the truth."

Felicity was trembling. She had lowered the gun a little and it was now placed against Laurel's hip. Laurel had her eyes focused on the gun and she was chewing the duct tape. She couldn't free her hands as they were cuffed in handcuffs. She needed the key for that.

Oliver was hoping Laurel wouldn't do anything stupid. Anything that would trigger Felicity back to the condition she was in just a minute ago. But as he observed Felicity, he was convinced he had made her realize what she was doing was wrong and it really wasn't her.

"Why didn't you tell me before?" Felicity slowly asked.

"As I said.. I was stubborn. But besides that.. I felt like I wasn't ready for a healthy relationship and I didn't want you to get in danger. But that last argument is stupid, because I've put you in enough danger already as in the danger we are in right now." Oliver paused and quickly let his eyes look to his left and immediately after, back to Felicity. "And to be honest.. I was afraid you had lost your interest in me. That I had thrown away my chance at being with you.. So I thought of keeping my distance from you.. but that was selfish of me.. I could have just talked to you about it."

Felicity shook her head no as tears were welling up. Oliver noticed and swallowed.

"You only made things worse, Oliver, you hurt me instead."

"I never meant to hurt you Felicity. I never meant to do that, you have to believe me.. I handle things the wrong way when you don't show me the right way. In this, you _couldn't_ show me the right way as you were the destination I had to go to. I went the wrong direction.. I know that." He paused again. "Do you remember that moment in the mansion? I don't think you do.. but I told you I love you and in the end you thought it was all part of a plan... but look, I just told you, I'd never lie to you.. and the moment I told you I loved you.. that was everything but a lie."

A tear rolled down Felicity's cheek. She was shaking. However, the hand that had been holding the gun the entire time was moving up toward Laurel's head again. Laurel squeezed her eyes shut in anxiety. Felicity's other hand moved up to wipe away the tear that had escaped her eye.

In that moment, Oliver saw movement on the right again. Nevertheless, he turned around to the left and met Diggle's gaze. Diggle nodded in encouragement and threw a syringe at Oliver. Oliver immediately placed it on his bow and pointed it at Felicity.

After that moment, everything happened in a blink. Felicity had the gun against Laurel's head again and was about to place her finger on the trigger again too, however, she wanted to wipe away the tear also and in that moment Oliver was able to shoot the syringe at Felicity. It hit her right in the neck and the fluid from the syringe immediately entered Felicity's body.

But then blood suddenly spread across Felicity's suit near her chest. Her eyes widened and she dropped the gun she had been holding in her hand. Then both hands went for her chest. Felicity gasped for air and fell down with a loud thud. Laurel'd managed to jump away and it was then that Oliver saw lieutenant Lance standing in the background. Lieutenant Lance had his gun raised in front of him.

He had his gun pointed at the place Felicity had first been standing.

And suddenly reality hit Oliver.

* * *

**What did you think? Please review, as said before, it means a lot to me.**

**Now something totally different, if you love Stephen Amell and you love giving AND clothing, make sure you buy his t-shirt(s) for F&CK Cancer. There are normal t-shirts, there's a tanktop, baseball tee and sweater. It's all for a good cause :) I did too ! Link is below:**

** /stephen**


End file.
